Chrono Trigger: A Twist In Time
by goingstealth
Summary: Time is like a river while its course can be changed, it always ends up going to the same place. Destiny cannot be defeated, the world must fall... [Revised version with new afterword]
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

A body lay still on the battlefield. Nothing particularly special in itself; many people had died on battlefields such as this and the site of the pitched battle that had taken place was no exception. Slowly though, the young man sat up. Looking around the battlefield, he saw corpses all around him, the once green fields now stained thickly with the blood of almost all that had met there. Rising to his feet, he looked all around him, knowing that something was wrong with it all. Finally he looked down and what he saw would have given him a heart attack if he still had a heart that is...

He stared down at his body, his clothing stained just like the grass field he stood... no, floated in. He could see a large tear in his flesh where a sword had obviously got through his defences and quite a few major organs as well... things weren't looking so good for him...

Suddenly, a bright light surrounded him and a voice rang out in his ears. Someone was here and they were comforting him! As he listened on, he saw the truth of what was to come and saw his part to play in it all. Slowly the light dragged him down, back into his body, life being breathed back into his corpse.

For a minute or two nothing happened until with a desperate gasp for breath, his eyes snapped open, seeing the world before him once again...

* * *

"Time. It's always around us but what is it? Is it the very essence of life or is it just a creation of humanity? Now, that is a question we can answer. Is it not true that we have time under control now? We can travel through time like walking through a corridor. We can stop it or speed it up; we can manipulate it, contain it and harness it. We precious few have time on a leash, and with possession of that leash comes a vast responsibility.

"Time is elastic, like a rubber band. You can stretch it, bend it, reshape it, but it will flip back to its original state. However, you pull on it too hard and it will simply snap. So, if time 'snaps', what does this mean to us? Well, to refer back to the rubber band analogy, it will become a line. Time currently functions in a loop; what has happened before will do so again. But with a line comes an end. The end. No more life, no more happiness or sorrow; no more anything. With the death of time comes the death of existence.

"So, this is our 'vast responsibility'. We protect time and thus existence. It is our duty to maintain this timeline for the sake of those who have lived, are living and will live..." Slowly the speaker ground to a halt, staring at the single slender hand raised in the small gathering before him. All attention focused on the young girl whose arm stood to attention.

"Yes Miss Morad? You have a question?"

As her arm slowly lowered itself, synapses fired in the young girls brain as she feebly tried to remember what she had been about to say until it finally hit her. "Y... you said time was a loop but then said we were on a timeline? How can loops have lines in them by what you're saying?"

Silence.  
A glint of approval in his eyes.  
"That is actually a rather intelligent question. It comes down to semantics really..." Realising who he was speaking to, he changed his tone a bit. "Semantics being what words actually mean. A loop is basically a circle right? And everyone knows a circle has one line, running all the way around it called the circumference. Well, the circumference of time is the timeline we exist on. You understand it now Destiny?"

A nod and a tight-lipped smile was all the response he got, but it was enough. Other members of the gathering had sneers on their faces, thinking she was a fool for asking that question, like it had been obvious to them...

"What Miss Morad just did was quite possibly the most sensible thing I've ever seen done by new intakes. If you're ever in doubt about anything, ask somebody about it. We cannot afford to make mistakes in this task so make sure you understand, one way or another...

"Now, where was I? Ah yes... We make a stand for all creation so that it can carry on. But what can we truly do to protect time? We must assert our will upon it, influence its path so that it follows what we decree to be the right way..."

The instructor's words slowly faded away as Destiny Morad glanced around the room. Sterile white walls surrounded her as she sat upon a sterile white stool, about two feet from the sterile white floor. Around her were other inductees, all the same age as her: fourteen. Quite how fourteen-year-old children were supposed to follow what was being said properly would have been a mystery if it were not for the fact that these children had all been especially picked. Time had been scoured to find new candidates; only the smartest would do for this job. They were to become Time Wardens, the saviours of everything.

It was ironic that a girl named Destiny was training to be a Time Warden; destiny cannot exist if time can change between different threads. And currently this little slice of Destiny was missing her home. Being wrenched away from your only life at the tender age of fourteen is bad enough but stress like that has a nasty habit of opening old wounds; decayed memories slipping into a persons unconscious that they'd rather not remember. This was the case with Destiny... the lithe fourteen-year-old girl with black hair sat there trying to pay attention to what was being said, but dark thoughts snatched at her constantly...


	2. A Fork In The Road

**Chapter 1 - A Fork In The Road**

"Crono... Crono! Come on Crono, it's time to get up!"

Slowly, painfully, Crono opened up his eyes, as his mother opened up the curtains. Daylight streamed in through the window, piercing his eyes, lighting up the mess of a room in which he was inhabiting. Ratty-looking clothes were dumped in one corner, each garment sending its own SOS message to Crono's mother, screaming to be clean once again.

"Hunh? Uggghhhhh..."

"You were so excited about going to see the Millennial Fair, you hardly slept last night did you?" a right old scolding on the tip of her tongue, begging to be let loose on the young lad but she bit it back, knowing it would do no good. Things were difficult enough as they were without a war erupting between her and her son.

"Uh-huh..."

Crono's mother shook her head disapprovingly and ruffled his spiky red hair, before walking down the stairs leaving Crono on his own. Throwing back the cover, he swung his legs over the side of the bed. As usual his cat nuzzled itself against his legs, the short fur tickling his ankles. In his excitement to get as much time in at the Millennial Fair, Crono had gone to sleep the previous night in his clothes which were now all wrinkled up, not that he cared. None of the girls in the local area held Crono's attention. Not that they were ugly... well, some of them were, but they just lacked something he needed in a girlfriend. Standing up, he checked himself out in the mirror. Quickly running his hand through his hair again, he reached for his most prized possession. A wooden sword hand-carved by his father. In another daily ritual, he ran his fingers over the blades inscriptions before sheathing it and attaching it to his belt. Finally deciding he was ready, he started off down the stairs.

"Ah, you're finally up! You inventor friend... what was her name again? Lucca, that's it... Lucca called around earlier, she wants you to go and see her exhibition at the fair," Crono's mum said as she saw her son trudge his way down the stairs the same way as he did every day.

Giving her a quick poke in the ribs, Crono laid his palm out upwards, giving his mother the best puppy dog look he could. Seeing his pathetic attempt to look adorable, she sighed before reaching into a pocket in her apron. "Here's your allowance, not that you deserve it after that incident last week!"

Blushing, Crono quickly sidestepped her and dashed through the doorway into freedom, ignoring the call of "What about some breakfast?" from behind him. As he slowed his pace to a walk, he realised that he was indeed hungry. Spotting the inn, he decided to see if they had any grub for him or whether he'd have to get by on some candy from the Fair which was almost definitely gonna be overpriced. Popping in, he went up to the bar, and surprisingly for this time of day there were plenty of people in there already. _Holiday time, let the drunkards come_, he thought as he glanced at a rather fat man slouched on the stool beside him. Looking around a bit more, his sharp ears picked up some conversation being muttered about in a corner.

"I swear, I've had just about all I can stand of those damn earthquakes... I've put that damn fence up five times in the last year and every quake it gets knocked down..."

"We're having earthquakes and you're worried about your fence? We've been having too many, something's wrong... Hope the 'Big One' ain't coming..."

Guessing it was the usual blabber from drunken fools, Crono dismissed it from his mind and left empty-handed... the words still ringing in his head. Shaking it clear, he sprinted all the way to the fair. He'd been looking forward to the four-hundredth anniversary of the victory of the Kingdom of Guardia over the Mystics and people were celebrating the freedom of life... As Crono arrived, he saw the vibrancy of it all and he stopped, taken aback by the sheer gaudiness of it all. Brightly coloured flags were strung up all over the place and every stall was a different colour, all in a vain effort to make it look pretty and interesting to all of the tourists, trying to con them out of their money. Not that Crono minded, he just wanted to go and see Lucca, he was probably late already... Dashing past a waterfall in the middle of the first plaza, he raced up some steps to the second which housed Leene's Bell, neatly skipping around a young woman dressed all in white and carried on, without even paying her the slightest bit of attention...

"Oh shit... it wasn't supposed to happen like that," said the stranger. "They were supposed to bump into each other, that was how it all started." Nobody had noticed the stranger dressed all in black. What made it all the more interesting was that the stranger was floating half-a-metre above the ground. Now it knew it would have to report this in and it wasn't looking forward to it, he knew they'd go ballistic at him...

Crono continued on up the final set of small steps to where the real action would be happening whether it worked or not, the 'it' being his friend Lucca's latest device. They had been known to go disastrously wrong but not all of them were too bad. Take Gato, the fighting robot for instance. He was set up somewhere else at the Fair, he'd have to go off and hunt him down later for some serious practice. As he emerged onto the third and final plaza, Crono saw it. Two large metal chambers sat in the corners, large wires draped between them with bulky amounts of machinery tacked onto the side of it. Before it stood a burly man with dark red hair and a shorter girl with large glasses and purple hair beside him. Catching a sight of the familiar red spiky hair, she called out.

"Crono! Where have you been?" she asked petulantly. "No-one wants to try the Telepod. How about you?"

_I wonder why?_ He thought sarcastically as he looked at the contraption behind Lucca. Shrugging, it looked like a pretty good laugh to him so he did what he was asked to do.

"Just hop onto the left pod."

Crono stepped up onto the pod as a young woman climbed up to the exhibition area with a stick of cane candy clutched tightly in her hand. Lucca and Taban started flicking switches and pulling levers in what seemed a random order but somehow it managed to make the machine do something. "All systems on," Lucca casually remarked as Crono started to see flickers of electricity on the wiring near his head. Gulping down the fear, he just thought about how cool it would be when whatever was happening would finish.

"Begin energy transfer!" called out Lucca as Taban worked the controls. Crono could feel a strange itching, burning sensation all over his body. All of a sudden, pain flared out, enveloping him in it. All of his cells were pulled apart and shot across the exhibition area to the other telepod. In a flash, Crono re-materialised in one piece. The crowd gasped as Crono checked himself over and then let out a big sigh as he saw he was alright, all body parts accounted for but one, but he was hardly gonna check that in front of everyone else, not with ladies present at least. Not that it had stopped him in that incident last week... He quickly stepped down, anxious to get away from the device.

The crowd all applauded and the young woman with the candy stepped forward. "May I have a go?" she asked.

"Of course you can. Just step up on the left pod over there and quick as a flash we'll have you over the other side," replied Taban. As she stepped up, he asked, "What's your name by the way?"

She hesitated before replying, "Marle, my name is Marle."

Lucca stared at Marle oddly, with a faint hint of recognition in her eyes. _If only she could recall from where she recognized her_... Her eyes fixed on the pendant she was wearing. The gemstone embedded in it was shining translucently as it swayed from side to side over her cleavage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, lets give this vision of loveliness, Marle, a real big hand when she re-appears on the other side!" Taban cried out, trying to give it his all in Taban and Lucca returned to the machine to operate it again.

This time, something went wrong. Marle's pendant flared up, shooting light out of it. Electricity surged around he pod as she pulled her pendant off from around her neck and stared at it. As she felt the pain blossom, she screamed and dropped it. There was a large ripping sound as a vortex opened up in between the two telepods, sucking Marle inside. All that was left of her was the pendant, lying on the pod floor...

Everybody just stood there in shock until finally someone responded. "Everybody out of here now!" yelled Taban. "Clear off the whole lot of you!" Everybody apart from Crono, Lucca and Taban ran like crazy to get out of there.

"What happened Lucca? Where did she go?" Taban asked.

"The way she disappeared... it couldn't have been the Telepod!" She replied. "The warp field seemed to be affected by her pendant..."

"What are we going to do know?"

"She's so familiar! I KNOW I've seen her somewhere..."

As Taban and Lucca discussed what could have happened, Crono walked up onto the left telepod and picking up the pendant by its chain, he stared at the large gem in its centre. It seemed liked the many facets of the gem were each staring back at him, trying to figure to what kind of person he was. Taban looked up and noticed Crono standing on the pod. "You're actually going to do it!" he asked, snapping Crono out of his trance.

"Wha!" Thinking it through quickly, he realised it was a chance to prove himself as a hero by rescuing the fair princess... Inwardly shrugging, he nodded to Taban.

"What a fine lad!" Taban responded.

"I'm guessing it's her pendant that caused the reaction, so I'm gonna need a bit of it to try and find you later," said Lucca. Sticking his hand down his top, Crono pulled it up through his collar. Taking it in her hand, Lucca carefully scraped a slender chip out of the gem, handing it back quickly. "Once I figure out exactly what's going on, I'll go through the portal to get you out, so until then, find her and be careful!"

With that, Lucca and Taban returned to the controls to operate the machinery for one last time. The pendant now looped around his neck tucked underneath his blue shirt, the metal cool against his skin, Crono braced himself for the pain of nothingness again but the first time through was nothing like the pain that was coming...


	3. A Spark Of Individuality

**Chapter 2 - A Spark Of Individuality**

_"NOOOOO! DON'T LEAVE ME! DON'T DIE ON ME LIKE THIS!"_

Destiny awoke with a start, the scream still echoing through her brain as she threw herself into a sitting position, her black hair whipping around in the sudden movement. "What the fuck..." Slowly, the dream and the noise drifted from her mind to be replaced by something else. As the body lying next to here shifted in its position, Destiny's ears picked up on a noise droning on in the background. _What the hell is it?_ Bleary-eyed, she glared around the white-panelled room as the sound gradually filtered through her muddled brain:

"Could Agent Morad make her way to the briefing room? Repeat. Could Agent Morad make her way to the briefing room? End message"

"Holy shit..." she whispered, slinging aside the bed covers and snatching at a pile of nearby clothes and deftly slipping them on, all sense of tiredness wiped away in a rush of adrenalin. She ignored the slurred mumblings from the lump in her bed, knowing this time she had a good excuse to get right out of there, instead, sprinting down the corridors. Noticing a distinct lack of anyone else, a mix of confusion and bewilderment rushed through her head as to why no-one else was headed that way. _What if everyone else was already there, waiting for her? That would make sense as to why only I was called..._ The only sound that could be heard was the thump thump thump of her feet and her heart, and the almost non-existent rustling of her clothing. Skidding around the corner, she burst into the briefing room, the doors smashing into the opposing walls before swinging back into place with a satisfying click. Quickly, Destiny pulled herself to attention and snapped a salute, meeting the grim eyes of the Supreme Council. Fear trickled down her spine... _What could they want with me?_ She quickly snapped to attention and saluted them, until she was told to stand down.

"You're probably wondering why you've been called here," said Senior Director Ashtear, an austere figure, his grey hair only slightly lighter than the grey jacket and trousers he wore. "You have been specially selected to fulfil a very special mission."

Destiny's back stiffened. She'd heard rumours about the Supreme Councils '_special missions_'...

"There has been a rather disturbing divergence in the time-lines... one that directly affects each and every one of us."

Destiny froze completely, her mind going completely numb. She already knew what it was. The Lavos thread. It was an absolute nightmare as it was with all the time travel, but if that had diverged... the consequences for, not only that planet, but also the whole universe were devastating. What scared Destiny more, was the fact that if Lavos' ascension to the surface wasn't stopped, she could simply just cease to be... _No, don't be silly... as long as I stay in the time-bubble, everything will be fine..._

She snapped back to reality as Ashtear continued. "As you may have already guessed, there has been a time-line diversion... one key to our planets survival... as of now, Lavos will not be defeated and shall be the dominant force for the rest of out planets short life span, which means that his offspring will spread to further planets, causing even more destruction... This could become a universe wide genocide of the human race!

"Now to go more in depth as to what has happened. As you have already been taught, Lavos was originally defeated due mainly to the work of two individuals, Crono and Marle. Their union began in 1000AD, where they met up at the Truce Millennial Fair and began to fall in love. This is where the divergence has occurred...they did not meet as originally occurred... and the bonding process has not happened. Quite simply, what we want you to do is go back and make sure they fall in love."

"You what?" she sputtered. "Love? What do I know of love? You killed all of that years ago when you took me away from my family!"

"DO YOU FORGET WHO YOU ARE TALKING TO LITTLE LADY?" Ashtear shouted as he rose up from behind his desk. Even at the age of 67, he cut an imposing figure and dwarfed the 5"9' Destiny. "DON'T YOU DARE TALK TO ME LIKE A WHINING TEENAGER!" The veins over his temples were throbbing so hard they almost burst. Eventually, he managed to restrain himself and sat down, slumping into his chair, his bushy eyebrows covering his eyes.

"As Senior Director Ashtear was trying to say, we need you to go back and rectify the situation," finished Councillor Logan.

"Permission to ask a question Sir."

"Permission granted Agent Morad."

"Why have I been chosen for this mission Sir?"

"You have shown great promise in your career so far Agent Morad, and we feel that you are the most ably equipped member of our agency. Also, with this directly affecting you, we feel it will help give you some... added stimulus to succeeding at the task. That will be all. We expect you to leave tomorrow"

Destiny left the briefing room with her mind whirling... _she was going back home... if it still existed... she could... no, she had a mission to do... maybe they'd let her have some time off after the mission... if she lived that long..._

Destiny hardly slept that night, her mind was awhirl with thoughts of home... but then she realised it wouldn't be the same... Lavos was in control and the world wasn't safe anymore...

_"NOOOOO! DON'T LEAVE ME! DON'T DIE ON ME LIKE THIS! DEAR GOD, DON'T TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME, NOT LIKE THIS!"_

She woke up early the next day, sweating profusely as she had every single night of her life. _What the hell was that damn dream about?_ She'd already forgotten...

_Lock and load, it's time to go..._


	4. The Missing Link

**Chapter 3 - The Missing Link**

A clearing between some trees. A nice evening; a soft breeze blowing through, making the leaves rustle; birds flying in the sky and happily chattering away to each other. But slowly, it all came to an end as raw spiritual energy danced in the centre of the clearing, a mysterious portal opening up and the unmistakeable sound of someone screaming. Crono flew through the open vortex and smashed into the ground where he lay, desperately sucking air deep into his lungs. Looking around from his position on the ground, he saw three blue blurs come flying towards him. Swiftly he rose up, drawing his wooden sword from its scabbard, albeit rather shakily after the impact.

He recognised them as imps; ferocious though weak humanoids. Their sloping foreheads were crowned either side by their long pointy ears with tufts of hair sticking up from them. "D'ya think ya can take us, ya little maggoty human?" one screamed in defiance before charging headlong at him.

Crono deftly stepped aside of the imp and delivered a crashing blow to the back of its head as it streaked past him, tearing the top of its head off; brains splattering across the clearing. He spun around and quickly ducked a rock one of the imps threw at him, and then lunged at it, ramming his sword right through its chest, slicing clean through the spine. As he drew his sword from the shattered body, the third imp leapt onto his back; clawing at his neck whilst screaming, "Long live Magus!" Crono reached behind him and grabbed it by one of its ears, swinging it over his head and smashing it into the ground. Dazed, it tried to push itself up, but found opposition in Crono's boot pushing it firmly back down to the ground. Startled, it found his opponents blade tip hovering centimetres from its throat.

"Bastard! Why did you attack me? What did I do to you?" he asked furiously.

"Wha... what? Are you simple or something? We're your sworn enemies!"

"What do you mean? Where the hell am I?"

"The war, you know. Between the Mystics and the Humans? You're in Truce Canyon," sputtered the Imp.

Realisation struck Crono like ice-cold water to the face; somehow he'd travelled back in time 400 years to 600AD, during the War of the Mystics... He remembered the imp calling out the name Magus... Crono remembered it from History lessons... he'd been some mighty sorcerer who had led the Mystics into battle... Stunned, he lifted his foot from the Imps chest, which quickly ran away... _This can't be happening to me..._ Crono shook his head clear and dashed off over a rickety rope-bridge, a crystal clear river running somewhere below him.

As he reached the other side, another two blue imps came running at him. Issuing forth a cry of guttural rage, Crono swung his sword in a curving arc from the ground upwards with immense speed, generating a wave of wind so thick it was visible to the naked eye and sent it slamming into the first imps body, shredding it into pieces. The second imp, seeing what happened to his comrade, dove to the side out of the way of the oncoming wave, crashing into a cliff wall. Crono seized the opportunity and rushed at the dazed imp, sword held high. As the imps sight regained clarity, the last thing it saw was Crono's sword come flashing down towards him...

Crono wiped his sword clean on the top half of the corpse lying in front of him. Charging down some steps, he skidded to a halt upon seeing two blue Imps playing football with a Roly curled up tightly, acting as the ball. It would have been comical, if it wasn't for the fact he knew that they'd try to kill him. Too tired after having already fought five imps, he carefully sneaked around them, hiding in the thick undergrowth, choosing to run to the nearest town, rather than face another confrontation.

Crono stopped in an inn to catch his senses... _if that was Truce Canyon, then this must be Truce, my hometown..._ He sat at the bar and ordered a soda, whilst listening in on other people's conversations, trying to find out about the era he now found himself in.

"What a relief! They finally found Queen Leene wandering up in the mountains!" one soldier said to another.

"She must be glad to be home!" replied the other soldier.

"The Queen has been through a lot... She's been babbling about the oddest thing."

The doors swung open, some of the heat escaping from the stuffy room as a stranger walked in. Walking up the bar, he called out, "Anyone wanna buy me a soda?" to anyone that was listening to him. Lifting his hand, Crono nodded as he made his way over to him. "Thanks a lot mate. My name's Toma. Tell ya what, since you're buying me a drink, I'll let you in on a secret. It's about Queen Leene. She disappeared while visiting that cathedral to the West..."

He was interrupted by one of the soldiers; "They found her up in Truce Canyon today."

"Oh well, never mind then lad," Toma told Crono. Crono shrugged and left the Inn. _If there'd been soldiers out looking for this Queen Leene, then some of them might have come across that girl Marle and taken her to the castle... it'd probably be a good idea to start looking for her there..._

"Halt! Who goes there?" cried out one of the guards as Crono came into view of the castle.

"Check out that hair! Where're you from, son? Are you one of Magus' troopers?" asked the other as they moved to block off Crono's path.

"Hardly! This kid never would have made the cut! Show us your stamp collection, son!"

The second guard crossed his arms over his chest as he started laughing. "Now beat it, shrimp!"

His anger rising, Crono started fingering the hilt of his sword but was stopped by a voice crying out from behind the guards: "Stop that at once!"

Whirling around, the two guards identified the source and dropped down onto one knee. "Queen Leene!" Crono was left standing, completely confused by what was going on as a beautiful young woman glided into the entranceway, the hem of her pristine white dress skimming across the floor.

"Show your manners! This is a friend of mine!"

"But there's something odd about him!" objected one of the guards, but was met with an icy stare from the queen wearing a beautiful dress.

"Do you dare disobey a direct order from me?" she asked.

"Forgive me your majesty... You may pass sire."

As the guards sidestepped, clearing Crono's way, the queen left with a curious smirk on her face.

Crono charged up the steps after her, curious as to why she had saved him but she had gone. Bewildered, Crono climbed the right-hand tower. At the top was a knight guarding the queen's bedroom. "You may pass sir, Queen Leene is expecting you," he said as he backed away.

Crono passed through into the queen's bedroom where two attendants were serving on her. "Please leave me," Queen Leene said to them. "The man and I have matters to discuss." When the attendants had left, she beckoned Crono forward.

"W--why did you save me earlier?" he started to ask, but he stuttered because there was something about her he recognized.

"Come close sir, " she beckoned. As he did so, she cuffed him around the head leaving a ringing sound in his ears. "That's for almost running into me at the fair!" Slapping him again, she said, "And that's for letting me use that damn telepod-thingy!" With one final slap, she'd finished her recriminations.

"Oww! You're the girl who got sucked into that portal, Marle!" Crono guessed whilst rubbing his now bright-red and stinging cheek.

"Yeah, that's right," she replied tersely. "But everyone here calls me Queen Leene... what the hell has been going on?"

"This is gonna sound weird, but that portal-thing that sucked you in was actually a time warp. You were sent 400 years backwards into the middle of the War of the Mystics."

Marle burst out laughing, thinking he was pulling her leg, but slowly stopped when she realised Crono was being serious. "Holy shit..." The candles in the room started flickering until they simultaneously went out. A strange, luminescent glow started to fill the room as a grimace shot across Marle's face.

"Wha... what's happening to me? It feels like... like I'm being pulled apart!" A mysterious aura shone around her, glowing so bright that Crono could no longer see. With an ear-piercing scream from Marle, the light disappeared. As he slowly regained his sight, he realised that she had disappeared. Shocked, Crono staggered from the room and descended the tower.

He could still hear her screaming ringing in his ears as he heard someone call out his name. Whirling around, he saw Lucca charging at him. "You're OK... did you find the girl?" Crono quickly filled her in on the details.

"Hmm, it's just as I thought... I knew I recognised her! And this looks identical to the castle in OUR time! I'll bet they mistook her for her ancestor... you see, she's a member of the royal family in OUR time! She's Princess Nadia!"

"What the hell!" exclaimed Crono.

"Marle, that is Princess Nadia, is a descendant of Queen Leene! Back in 600AD, Queen Leene was kidnapped, but somebody saved her. However, history has been changed. When they found Marle up in Truce Canyon, they mistook her for the queen and called off the search. Now, with no one to rescue her, she gets killed and Marle is never born! There might still be time... if we find the real Queen Leene before she is killed, we can return time to what it's supposed to be!" explained Lucca.

"Right, then we'd better hurry, hadn't we? This guy I met called Toma said Queen Leene disappeared whilst visiting the cathedral to the West, so we'll start searching there."

* * *

Standing outside the cathedral, the pair looked at the dilapidated building filling their view. The towers on either side had crumbled and some of the moss-covered walls had large holes in them, with tree branches poking their way through into the inner sanctum. The overall impression was a stark one: God had forsaken this once holy place. "What the hell would a queen be doing here?" Crono mused. "It looks like this place has been dead for years... Well, this has gotta be the place, let's go in."

"I've got a bad sense of foreboding about this..." muttered Lucca before she followed Crono inside. The interior was finely decorated with a richly woven scarlet carpet flowing across the floor leading up to the altar. As Crono and Lucca walked up the aisle, the nuns just ignored them, continuing their work. "There's something creepy about this place, I mean why isn't it in our time zone? There's nothing here, just trees... what could have happened for this place to just disappear?" asked Lucca.

"I think it might have something to do with Queen Leene's disappearance," was all that Crono said. Walking up to the altar, a glitter caught his eye. Crouching down, he took hold of a pin and looked at it. "What d'ya make of this Lucca?"

"That's the royal crest of Guardia on it, she's definitely been here," Lucca replied. Looking up, she saw the Head Sister glide towards her with what looked like a contorted grin on her face. Looking closer, Lucca saw that her features were moving; the lips drawing back, exposing her fangs, the nose extending to form a snout. Clutching Crono's arm, she cried, "The nuns! They're not human!"

Instantly, the five nuns all turned into Naga-Ettes, their ears extending into points and their legs turning into large tails. As they charged at Crono and Lucca, Crono cried out "Fire Whirl," a signal they had used before when scrapping it out against Gato. It was to let the other one know what to expect in the heat of battle. At his call, Lucca cast a thin line of fire, sending a stream of it right at Crono. Catching it on his blade, he pirouetted between the Naga-Ettes, holding his sword outstretched.

As he spun around them, he sliced their guts open, spreading the fire from his blade to their insides, leaving their blackened intestines to ooze out onto the floor. Only one was left standing from the fast attack, and as it turned to run, Lucca shot it in the back with her trusty Air Gun, an eruption of blood spraying from it's chest like a red mist, sending it crashing into the far wall. "Phew, that was close," she said, turning her back to the altar. In a burst of blue flame, another Naga-Ette appeared behind her and clawed Lucca across the back, tearing her jerkin to bits, blood seeping from the cuts. Dropping out of the rafters, a caped figure sprang up and swung a mighty broadsword at the creature, tearing its head from its shoulders, showering blood across the altar, making it look like a pagan sacrifice had taken place.

"Lower thine guard and thou'rt allowing the enemy in," croaked the mysterious stranger. Quickly he spun around as he sheathed his sword, showing his true form: a frog standing on its hind legs, fully dressed in human clothes. "Thou'rt here to save the Queen? The lair is deep within. Will thee accompany me?"

"A... a FROG! Crono, it's a talking FROG! I hate frogs!" Lucca screeched, nearly passing out.

"My guise doth not incur thy trust... Very well, do as thee please, but I shall save the Queen."

"W, wait! You don't seem like a bad... uh... person-frog-thing... I mean..." Confusion covered her face and she turned to Crono in thought. "What should we do?"

"Go with the frog of course, we could do with any help we can get," was all he replied.

"I'll just have to handle it... uh, I mean... deal with... him! What's your name?"

"Frog will do. Mayhap a hidden door lurks nigh? Let us search the environs."

The trio split up and started to tap the walls, looking for a hollow spot or a hidden switch. Crono slipped on a patch of Naga-Ette blood and managed to grab hold of the church organ to steady himself. A cacophony of noise sung out of the pipes, accompanied with a grating sound as a secret door appeared. "This is feeling like a bad detective story," muttered Crono as he righted himself. "Oh well, let's do it," he said as the three walked through the door into a hallway.

The trio charged into the hallway, coming face to face with three Diablos'. Frog leapt at the first, tearing a horrific gash across the creatures chest. Crono ducked and threw the second Diablos over his shoulder, quickly spinning around and driving his sword thought its throat. Blood bubbled up around the blade as the creature gurgled and then died. As the third one approached Lucca, she pulled out a large mallet, and swung it directly at the Diablos' head. It ducked quickly, snatching the weapon out of her hands and aimed it for her chest. Seeing this, Frog shot out his tongue, extending it over two metres and wrapped it around the mallets shaft, dragging it out of the beast's hand. Lucca kicked it in the shin, and drawing her gun, shot it in the face, a fountain of hot, sticky blood spraying all over her body.

"This just isn't my day is it Crono?" she asked. Turning to Frog with a bashful face, she said, "Thank you for saving me there, I really appreciate our help."

"Tis' no problem milady," he said bowing. Wiping the mallets shaft clean of his saliva, he handed it back to her.

Passing through the hallway, they emerged into a large hall, with sets of stairs on either side of a pathway up the middle. Taking the left-hand set of stairs, they entered a treasure room. Looking around, Crono spied three chests, and walked over to them, opening them up. Inside he found some potions and a set of female armour, which he threw to Lucca.

"Put that on, your jerkin is already ruined. Might as well trash their stuff as well," Crono said with a mischievous grin. "Whilst we're at it, we oughta do something about that wound of yours."

Applying a tonic to the gouges, they watched as the blue liquid reacted with her blood, congealing until it formed a large scab, covering them up. As she felt the tonic flow through her bloodstream, Lucca felt more refreshed and eager to get out to continue the fighting.

Crono walked over to a chest of drawers, and opening one of them, found something strange inside. Holding it up, he asked, "What the hell is this?"

"That, is the Naga-Ette bromide, and we're gonna stop you from stealing it!" said a Hench; a burly looking, yellow skinned creature, decked out in strong blue armour. Two more Henchs stepped out of the shadows behind the first one, both attired as the first one. "Get them!"

Keeping his distance, Frog flicked out his tongue, wrapping it around the Hench. Dragging it towards him, he swung his broadsword, smashing through its helmet and continuing through the creature's head at eye-level. The Henchs body slumped onto a wall as the top of the skull went flying into the opposite wall. Not making the same mistake twice, Lucca shot out a ball of flame, scorching the very air between her and the second Hench. The wool layering inside of the Henchs armour caught fire; turning it into an oven the Hench couldn't escape as it slowly burned to death. Crono stood his ground as the third Hench rolled at him in a large ball. Timing it to perfection, Crono brought his sword slashing down just as the Henchs neck was exposed, cleaving it from its shoulders.

"I hope no-one heard all of that, it'd be a hell of a lot easier to get through here in one piece if we don't have every creature in here after our blood," said Crono.

Stepping out onto the landing, Crono, Lucca and Frog moved to another room. It was surrounded by large spikes, which quickly retracted when Frog hit a switch.

"How did you know that would happen?" asked Lucca, amazed.

"Lucky guess milady, merely a lucky guess," Frog replied with a wry grin.

Entering, they saw two guards from Guardia Castle. Catching him surprise, the first soldier said, "Yo... you're humans? They're hiding the queen in the back. Please rescue her!"

"Inside this building, there's a room dedicated to Magus... heard something about a treasure in there," said the second.

"Are you going to help us rescue the queen?" Frog asked.

"What with? We haven't any weapons to fight with so we'd just be dead weight," answered the first soldier.

Frog merely shrugged and walked away, quickly followed by Crono and Lucca. Going down the stairs, the trio dashed across the hall and up the right-hand set of stairs.

Walking into the first room, they came face-to-face with a Hench, a Naga-Ette and a Diablos sitting around a table, stuffing themselves with food. The trio were about to draw their weapons when the Diablos belched and then spoke, "Hey, what's with the disguise? No need for them here!"

As they walked up to the Diablos, it said, "It's almost my shift. I hate pretending to be human... it's so repulsive!"

"The ones we ate recently weren't SO bad, and those two soldiers we caught look rather plump and juicy," said the Naga-Ette, drooling, before belching as well.

"Yakra's so smart! His plan to capture the Chancellor and take his place worked perfectly! Now the Queen's captive and the castle's in an uproar. This is rich!" praised the Hench, not realising that he'd told three humans his boss's plan.

"I'll look in on Magus's statue before my shift," said the Diablos before leaving. Crono, Lucca and Frog quickly followed it. They entered a room containing Queen Leene, King Guardia and a soldier.

"Since when was the King kidnapped?" Lucca whispered to Crono.

"He wasn't," was the brief reply from Crono. "There's something going on here."

As Crono was about to walk from the room, Queen Leene giggled, "Don't be in such a hurry... enjoy yourselves first!"

Quickly, the three transmogrified into Gnashers; purple snake-like creatures with extremely long fangs. The first one leapt at Crono, but fell short as its head flew off from a quick swing of Crono's sword. It went over Crono's head into the corridor behind him. The second Gnasher charged at Lucca, which she caught underneath the chin with a mighty blow of her hammer, sending it flying out through a stained glass window. Frog dashed at the third Gnasher, skidding around it with his sword outstretched, cutting deep into its jugular, pumping blood out al over the floor.

"You'll never get that out of the carpet now," muttered Crono before walking into the adjoining room. Inside were three Diablos' and two Naga-Ettes all singing as one to a large granite statue at the opposite end of the room:

"Oh... dearest Magus... your flashing eyes... like stars,   
And flowing hair... like waves atop the sea,  
No sad sunny day nor any frightful bright place can get us down,  
As long as you're near... there's nothing to fear...  
Magus, oh Magus, our hero Magus"

Seeing the large number of monsters in the room, they decided it'd be best to avoid a fight and so returned the way they came. Going up the pathway in the middle of the hall, they charged up some steps, with Crono and Frog quickly dispatched the two Gnashers in their path; both of them simultaneously decapitating them. They emerged into a dimly lit chamber where two figures were standing around an altar.

"Prepare yourself Queen Leene," said one of the figures. As the trio ran up to the altar, they recognized the figures as Queen Leene and the Chancellor. "YOU! How did you get in here?"

"Frog!" cried out the queen.

"Majesty, stand back and allow us the honour!" said Frog.

"Gyah ha ha... it's useless to fight! No-one will leave here alive!" said the Chancellor. "Stupid Frog! It's time you jumped off this mortal coil! True-form-CHANGE!" The Chancellor span around in circles, a blue discharge crackling and snarling around him, as he shape-shifted into a writhing pulsating mass. Yakra was formed.

Crono, Lucca and Frog leaped back and drew their weapons. As Yakra approached, both Crono and Frog simultaneously leapt at it, swords first. Their swords sliced along Yakra's back tearing the flesh off him, but he carried on regardless. Yakra leaped into the air and came crashing down with his large bulk, shaking the ground beneath the trio's feet, knocking them over. Getting up, Lucca threw a writhing stream of fire at the unprotected flesh on Yakra's chest, scorching it; leaving the smell of charred flesh. Frog jumped at Yakra, swinging his sword in a wide arc downwards, slicing many of his tentacles off. Bellowing in pain, Yakra charged at Frog, bowling him over and then jumped on top of him, knocking Frog's broadsword away from him. Frog stretched out desperately, trying to reach his sword. Perched on top of Frog, Yakra never saw Crono come up behind him. Raising his sword above his sword, Crono ran forward and drove his sword straight through Yakra's brain, the blade bursting out of his forehead. With a twist, Crono drew his sword out and rolled Yakra's convulsing corpse off of Frog and helped him up.

"My Queen, let us retire to the castle," said Frog.

As they were about to leave, Lucca saw a chest moving about. Drawing her gun again, she opened the chest quickly and aimed her gun at the contents. Breathing a sigh of relief, she reached inside, and pulled out the real Chancellor and untied him.

* * *

"You had me worried, Leene," King Guardia simply said, never a great one for showing emotion.

"That no good Yakra! Impersonating me and kidnapping the Queen! We must create a criminal justice system to do away with such fiends," stated the real Chancellor.

"I failed to protect Queen Leene. I have disgraced thee," Frog told King Guardia. "I shall take my leave of you."

"Frog!" cried Queen Leene, but Frog just ignored her and walked away.

Crono and Lucca chased after him. Outside, he turned to them. "Twas a fault of mine, which endangered the queen. I shall depart for good... Crono, you hath potential to be a good swordsman!"

As he stepped down the small staircase, he faintly heard, "... Froggy, you weren't such a bad guy either," issued forth from Lucca's lips.

"Come on Lucca, back to the job in hand," said Crono before turning to go back into the castle. Lucca only sighed and then followed him. The pair dashed up the right hand tower, into the queen's bedroom. With a flash of light, Marle re-materialised in front of them, falling to her knees and clutching at her throat.

"Wha... what happened? Oh, it was so awful... I can't recall it all... I was somewhere cold, dark... and lonely. Is that what it's like to... die?" she said between gasps for air.

"Yeah well, you can start by telling us why you lied, saying your name was Marle. We know you're Princess Nadia!" shouted Crono.

"Yeah, and your problem is?" Marle shouted back.

"Quit it you two, this is no time to start arguing! We've got to get back to our own time-line, so quit bickering and get your rears into gear," finished Lucca.

* * *

They returned to the clearing in Truce Canyon where Crono had re-materialised earlier. As they stood there, Marle asked the obvious question: "How do we get home?"

"Your Highness, er, Princess...we..." stammered Lucca.

"Please call me Marle," she responded.

"Well then, Marle, observe!" Lucca reached into her leather jerkin and produced a cylindrical object with a sphere on the end of it. Pointing it at the centre of the clearing, Lucca pressed a button on the base and a vortex opened up.

"Wow! Lucca, you're amazing!" exclaimed Marle.

"Ain't it the truth!" bragged Lucca. Realising what she had just said, she look downwards and played with her hands, muttering, "Oh, um... I mean..."

"Enough with the false modesty, you have a real gift! I would trade my royal ancestry for your genius in a heartbeat!"

"Well, if you say so," said Lucca doubtfully. "Anyway, I call this thing a 'Gate'. It's a kinda portal that takes you to the same location in a different era. Gates are very unstable, so I used the principle behind my Telepod device to create a 'Gate Key'. Now we can use them as we please."

"But how did this gate appear in the first place?"

"Either the telepod had something to do with it, or... something else made it..."

"This is getting pretty weird. Let's at least head back to our own time!"

"All right. Coming Crono?" And with that the trio stepped into the gate, and were warped through time...


	5. The End Of Time

**Chapter 4 - The End Of Time**

The vortex took her, the colours oscillating around her as she was sucked through... _I could do this forever, so calm and peaceful..._ she let herself relax as the 'Rings of Time', the nick-name given to the bands of colour, streamed around her... _why do others feel so ill doing this? It's just so beautiful..._ Abruptly, she saw the pillar of light at the end... _here we go..._

Destiny floated down into the middle of the pillar of light. She was surrounded by hundreds of others, but she knew exactly which one she had to use, it was in the dead centre and pure white, signifying it as the birth of time, where the Hand Of Kronos was based, where she had spent 6 years training to be the best in such a twisted universe... all the others radiated outwards from it in all colours imaginable, except one. Black... black was the colour for the link to the end of time, and she was already there... As she walked through the gate, she turned back and looked at the pillars, each one glittering brightly in its own way, a fully panoramic kaleidoscope of colours... _such beauty, I wonder why Gaspar doesn't spend all of his time here?_

Walking through, she saw an old man in a dishevelled pinstripe suit and a slightly crumpled bowler hat, clutching an old, scratched cane made of solid oak, standing underneath a lamppost.

"Hey," was all he said.

_Strange for a man of such importance, and such power to seem so poor... guess it's what's inside that really counts..._ "You must be Gaspar, the Guru of Time," she said, offering her hand.

"That I am young lady, that I am," he replied taking her hand and gently kissing it, giving her an eloquent bow.

Destiny's face remained placid... it was an expression she'd worn for so long, she'd nearly forgotten how to look any different... "_If you keep on looking like that, the wind will change when you aren't expecting it and it'll be stuck like that forever_..." It was her mother who said that... she almost smiled at the memory, yet somehow she didn't.

"You must be the infamous Destiny Morad then, judging by your expression... stone-cold I've heard you described as, but then, you and me both know that isn't true, don't we?" Gaspar commented.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Oh, how emotions get in the way sometimes, always creating complications where you want none... but that isn't always the case, sometimes emotion clears everything up, like a ray of sunlight through a damp misty morning. The problem comes with antipode, a mixture of conflicting emotions, all rushing around inside your head at once. Take love for instance, which is at the heart of this matter, the strongest of emotions. It includes the capacity to devote yourself to another person, to do the most ridiculous things to preserve them, yet it can cause you to lose everything you have, your trust, your dignity, your self-respect. It can give you everything, or take it all away from you; it can empower you, or it can weaken you; it can give you wings to soar on, or it can cripple you... it is the be-all and end-all of everything and nothing all at once. It is the single most powerful yet weakest thing in the universe, stronger than any god, but weaker than any amoeba, and anything, whether person, animal or air molecule can be infected by it." As Destiny yawned, he said, "Do tell me if I'm boring you, my dear?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just I have other things on my mind. You know, the usual... the world and everything in it is going to be destroyed, along with the rest of the universe, I'm not going to exist anymore and I'm having a really bad hair day, yadda yadda yadda, you know, the same old boring shit."

"Yes, quite..." he said, disapproving of the bad language. "The resentment is to be expected I suppose, so please forgive me. I'm just an old man who hasn't had anyone to talk to in infinity, yet no time has passed at all since I last talked to someone, so please forgive me if I ramble on a bit."

"If I forgive you, then will you be quiet?" sarcasm abounded in the sugary-sweet voice she put on.

"Indubitably my dear, indubitably."

The two just stood there, facing each other, saying and doing nothing, each sizing the other up. Technically, it was a Chinese Standoff: the two sides staring at each other, not moving or making a single sound, waiting for the others to make a move. It was the calm before the storm... as soon as one said or did something, battle would commence, and Destiny already knew she would lose. Whilst she may have spent the last six years withdrawn in herself, Gaspar had spent eternity not having to do or say anything, and no-one, not even a God, could beat all of that experience.

_Ah sod it, I'm gonna lose anyway, there's no point in prolonging this..._ Destiny sat herself on the floor, leaning against a wall. "So, what do I do know?"

"It's not for me to tell you, you must decide yourself. As you yourself said, the entire universe depends on what you decide to do, and you were picked for a reason, and I have to abide by your decision; my hands are tied."

"Tied? By what?"

"I can't tell you what to do. There's a reason you were chosen to do this and my interfering would only upset your natural process of dealing with it. That interference could well be fatal... it could cause the universe to not exist anymore, or you to not exist anymore... either way we lose. All I can tell you is that you're the only one who can stop this from happening."

"Oh yee-fucking-hah! Praise the lord almighty! This is just what I fucking well needed... Dammit! I gotta think this over."

_What the hell am I gonna do? OK, my whole mission objective is to make Marle and Crono fall in love. To do that, I need to create a bond between them. That bond must be constituted of the following: Shared experiences, physical attraction and chemistry. I can't do anything about the physical attraction, but I know that's already there. The shared experiences are going to happen anyway, so I need to add to the chemistry between them, but how the hell do I do that?_ Destiny racked her brain, trying to think of how to add to the chemistry, but all she could hear was a voice in her head whispering something quietly...

"Envy makes the world go round, envy makes the world go round, envy makes the world go round, envy makes the world go round..."

Destiny remembered that day, many years ago, before the Hand Of Kronos took her...

"Mommy, why is Daddy stealing things? I thought it was bad to steal."

"Destiny, stealing is wrong, but your daddy is doing it for the right reasons. He only does it because he cares for us."

"But why does he have to steal?"

"We're too poor to be able to fend for ourselves. The only way we can get enough money to buy food is for daddy to steal darling. He doesn't like to steal, but he knows that if he doesn't, we'll starve, and he loves us too much to let that happen. If only Santé hadn't..."

"If only Santé hadn't what mommy?"

"If only Santé hadn't ripped us off all those years ago. Daddy used to own a business, which was very successful. He had a very talented apprentice called Santé. We were all doing very well until one day. Santé had decided that he could run the business better than Daddy could and decided to take over. He tricked your father into signing the business over to him, and since then, things have been going downhill."

"Why would anyone do such a thing?"

"Envy. Santé was envious of how well the business was doing and how much money Daddy was making, so he decided to take it all away from him. Remember this Destiny; envy makes the world go round. It consumes people and makes them do things they normally wouldn't do. It can make them do the most hurtful things, but it can also spur them onto greater heights, lead them to excel themselves. Envy makes the world go round. Remember that Destiny, always remember that."

_Should I make Marle envious? But how would I do that unless... I was to... no, that's unthinkable! I couldn't do that... but what if it's our only hope?_


	6. Trial And Error

**Chapter 5 - Trial And Error**

As they came out of the gate into the display ground, Crono and Marle were still fighting.

"Why the hell didn't you just tell us who you were in the first place? All of this bloody mess could have been avoided! We wouldn't have even let you near the bloody telepods!" shouted Crono.

"Goddammit! Just shut the fuck up you two! All I've bloody well heard is you two bitching about each other non-stop! I've bloody well had enough of all your bullshit!" screamed Lucca. Stunned at her outburst, the other two shut up and just stared at her. "Some people... we make the discovery of a life time and you spend all the time arguing!"

"Well, I guess I shouldn't be so hard on you Marle... I was kinda harsh on you," mumbled Crono apologetically.

"And I guess I shoulda told you who I really was," Marle mumbled back in response, staring at her feet.

"Gee, you two sure know how to communicate well... Crono, would you be a gentleman and escort Marle back to Guardia Castle? I've got things to do."

"... 'k," was all Crono responded with.

Lucca walked off with a laugh and shook her head. "A perfect couple..."

Crono and Marle walked back to Guardia Castle in silence, both being wary of saying anything to offend the other. Marle looked at Crono as they were walking.

_He is kinda cute, but does he have to be so bloody sanctimonious? He really gets on my nerves... if only he'd show me a bit of kindness. I'm sure we could get on with each other, maybe even... just maybe..._

Realising she was staring, Marle snapped her attention back to the path they were walking on, focusing on every pebble and twig that lay before them.

_I wonder if she likes me... she's pretty damn hot, but what a sharp tongue she's got on her! I mean, if only she'd try to be civil to me, I'm sure we could get on with each other, maybe even... just maybe..._

Both of their minds awhirl, they arrived at the entrance to Guardia Castle.

"Well, here I am. I guess I'd better hurry up and get in, my dad'll be going spare!"

"It'd be un-gentlemanly of me not to escort you in, and give you an excuse..."

"Aw, thanks Crono!" blushed Marle, holding her hands behind her back.

Opening the large doors, the two stepped inside, to be greeted by a loud voice.

"Princess Nadia!" called the Chancellor. "Are you alright? Where have you been! I heard you were abducted! We had soldiers searching for you!" Seeing they had company, the Chancellor spun around to face Crono. "Scoundrel! You're the one, huh? Kidnapping Princess Nadia!"

"No, Crono's..."

Marle was cut off by the now-furious Chancellor's wild accusations. "Admit it! You tried to confuse her and take over the throne! Terrorist!"

As guards swarmed towards Crono to arrest him, Marle screamed out, "S, stop it! Stop this at once!" causing all the guards to drop to their knees.

Shocked at the guard's actions, the Chancellor bellowed, "What are you doing!"

"But Princess Nadia said to..." spoke one of the guards without lifting his head.

"Idiots! Detain him!" And with that, the guards leapt upon Crono, dragging him to the ground...

The last thing he heard was Marle calling out, "Crono!"

* * *

A large crowd had gathered to see the spectacle. It wasn't often the Royal Princess got kidnapped and they all wanted to be there on the 'scoundrel's' judgement day. In boxes all around the courtroom the audience gossiped, their voices buzzing with excitement and anticipation until finally, the Judge, enthroned in his large chair, brought his hammer down, marking the beginning of the proceedings.

Stepping forward, the Chancellor introduced himself to the jury, "I'm the Chancellor, the prosecutor!"

On the other side of the judge, a man stood up, saying, "And I'm the lawyer, Pierre."

Resuming control over the trial, the Chancellor continued. "Members of the Court. We now bring forth the defendant, Crono, who is charged with abducting Princess Nadia." A short nod to two guards by the door led to Crono being dragged into the courtroom and placed behind a small podium. With a sneer drawn across his face, the Chancellor paced around Crono, talking all the time. "What shall we do with him? Fire, perhaps? Hang him upside down for a few years? Or... shall we employ the guillotine? You the jury, shall decide his fate. Now, let us begin."

Bringing his hammer down with an almighty crash, the Judge spoke, "Crono, you are hereby ordered to tell the truth!"

Crono's lawyer stepped forward and began the defence. "Crono is charged with 'Premeditated Abduction of Royalty'. The question is, did he kidnap Princess Nadia? The answer? No, he did not. In fact, no 'abduction' took place. The two didn't even meet with each other before Princess Nadia disappeared!"

The Chancellor stepped forwards as Pierre sat back down and began questioning Crono. "Is this true? The two of you never met before her disappearance?"

Crono just shook his head.

"So the fact that she disappeared at YOUR friends sideshow, and that you disappeared shortly after was all just coincidence?"

"Well, not exactly. Marl... I mean Princess Nadia went on the telepod, but something went wrong. Her pendant did something to the machine and it went loco, causing her to disappear. Someone had to go after her, and I was the only one who was willing."

"Now that sounds like SUCH a convincing story doesn't it?" exclaimed the Chancellor as he turned to the rest of the court. Spinning back to Crono, he asked, "Do you really expect us to swallow that tripe?"

"Objection! He's badgering the defendant!" cried Pierre.

"Sustained," ruled the judge with a nod of his head.

"Sheesh, enough already!" muttered the Chancellor. "I have facts that throw the defendant's character into question!"

"Objection! This can't have any relevance whatsoever to this case," cried out Pierre.

"Care to respond, Chancellor?" spoke the Judge, his thick grey moustache twitching.

"Crono's character is at the very core of this case! It's his character which shows he is likely to commit such a heinous crime against the crown!"

"We have nothing to hide whatsoever," spoke Pierre confidently.

"Your honour, I would like to bring forth a witness who'll testify to an incident last week which makes the defendants character seem highly suspect." Crono's heart sunk as his cheeks blushed red, knowing what was coming next.

"Granted. Please bring in your witness Chancellor."

The doors to the courtroom were opened up and in walked a young woman. Short orange hair bobbed and swayed as did her hips, making sure every single eye in the courtroom followed this beauty's entrance.

"Now, please tell us your name."

"Miss Elaine Stockholm. My father owns the little shop in Truce," she said, her voice confident in front of the large crowd.

Speaking clearly and soothingly, the Chancellor continued. "And can you tell us what happened on the morning of Thursday the seventh, last week?"

"I can sir. I was looking after the store when the defendant ran in stark naked." Crono's cheeks flushed even brighter as he carefully studied the podium he was standing at, trying to ignore all of the stares.

"Did the defendant ask you to do anything?"

A wry smile covered her face as she answered the question. "Yes he did, he asked me to bow down and kiss the magic snake."

Many sniggers were heard around the courtroom and even the judge struggled to keep a grin from his face at the young mans audacity.

When the crowd finally settled down, the Chancellor asked, "And what was your reaction?"

"Well, I was kinda shocked and surprised so I screamed. My dad heard me and came downstairs when he found Crono there. He grabbed him by the ear and marched him straight to his house where I heard his mother gave him a right royal ticking off."

"Thank you, that is all Elaine. You may step down now." With a smile, Miss Stockholm did so, her hips resuming their swaggering as she exited the room.

"Would you like to give your side of the events Crono?" asked Pierre, desperately trying not to burst out laughing.

"I only did it for a bet!" he wailed. "Fritz bet me four hundred pieces of gold I wouldn't do it!"

Quickly the Chancellor leapt to his feet, launching in with more questions. "So, you'll do almost anything for money would you? Say even... kidnapping a Princess!"

"What? No! I never kidnapped her! I told you already what happened!"

"And what a likely story that was... Surely, her fortune DID tempt you, did it not?"

Struggling to keep calm, Crono merely shook his head.

"Are you sure? You really weren't tempted?" pressed on the Chancellor.

"Not. At. All," he staunchly affirmed.

"That's enough, I have no more questions."

"I'd like to make a brief statement to the Jury if I may your honour?" asked Pierre as he stepped forwards.

"Granted."

"Ask yourselves this: What kind of kidnapper would bring their hostage back to their home, where they must have surely known that they would be captured? To do so would just be plain idiocy and I doubt anyone could accuse our defendant of being that stupid. Also, why was no ransom demand made of the King? Isn't that the first thing any kidnapper would do? It's certainly clear in my mind, as it should be in yours, that Crono did in no way kidnap Princess Nadia. It is evident that my client is a fine noble, albeit foolish, young man! Your honour, the defence rests."

Drawing himself fully upright, the judge spoke. "Members of the jury... If he is guilty, stand to the left. If innocent, stand to the right."

_Not guilty... Guilty... Not Guilty... Not Guilty... Not Guilty... Not Guilty... Not Guilty..._

All around, the court burst into huddled whispers. People were all turning to each other, whispering as quietly as their eager states would let them. Within minutes, word would be out on the streets of Crono being found not guilty.

The hammer smashed down onto the desk once again. "Order in the court! A verdict has been reached! The verdict is not guilty. But the fact remains, that even if he did not kidnap her, he ran off with her. Crono, you shall serve three days solitary confinement as punishment."

"Take him away!" screeched the Chancellor, rubbing his hands together.

The twin doors to the courtroom burst open and Marle came striding through. "Now just a bloody minute..."

"Princess!" exclaimed the Chancellor in a state of shock. "What are you doing here?"

"That's enough, my dear!" called out the King as he strode through the open doorway. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

"But Father..."

Any argument would have been useless; the King was determined to win this argument. "All I asked was for you to behave like a princess. Even royalty must obey rules! Leave the rest up to the Chancellor and forget about the events in town. We're leaving!"

Two guards stepped up and escorted Crono from the room, past a stunned Marle.

"Crono!"

The guards led Crono to the jail section of the castle, with the Chancellor struggling to keep up with them. Crossing the long walkway, they came to the jail entrance. Noticing the Chancellor, the Jail warden stood up from his desk and smartly saluted.

"This terrorist has tried to overthrow our kingdom! He has been found guilty, and you must now carry out his sentence."

"So THIS is the monster who kidnapped the princess!"

"The execution is 3 days away. Do NOT let him out of your sight."

"WHAT! Execution? I was only supposed to ge--" Crono was silenced by the Chancellor's elbow mysteriously finding its way into his stomach, knocking the air from his lungs.

"Erm... aha... clearly trying to fool you into thinking otherwise. Take him away and lock him in his cell. No-one is to talk to him at all until he's to be executed. Is that clear?"

"Understood, Sir!" With another salute, the warden turned and called out, "Guards! Take the prisoner away!"

From the doorway strode two burly guards, heavily decked out in armour. One of them strode up to Crono and smashed his blade sideways over Crono's head, knocking him out cold...

Darkness surrounded him, ran through him, ensnared him. Chaos and confusion ruled his mind, a black wind howling through his soul, filling every inch of his very existence... "Wake up, wake up," it said over and over again until light started to flood into his eyes...

"Maybe he's so tired from banging the princess, he ain't gonna wake up?"

"Look, he's awake." Turning to Crono, the second guard said, "We're here to take you to your place of execution. Come along."

Crono's head was still groggy... _Did that guy say execution? I thought that was gonna be three days away? Did I sleep through all of those days?_ Slowly, memories drifted back into his tired head... he'd spent most of the last three days asleep, only waking up for meals and to go toilet in the corner of the room. It was as if he'd been a robot...

"Come on! Get off your arse and come with us, you've got an execution to get to... namely yours!"

Dragging himself to his feet, he let the guards drag him along the grimy corridors, his feet knocking about on the cobbled floor as they passed cell upon cell, their current occupants walking up to the bars and spitting at Crono. Turning a corner, the guards pulled him into the execution chamber.

"We've sharpened up the guillotine... Any last words?" asked the executioner.

Crono was silent though his thoughts raced through his head. _So this is how it's gonna end. Do a girl a small favour and you get executed for it... why me?_

All of a sudden, a guard came tumbling down the steps into the chamber, his heavy armour clanking loudly in the eerie silence that had taken over the room. Lucca came bursting down the steps, gun in hand crying, "Crono! I've come to save you!"

"Who the heck are YOU?" cried out one of the guards.

Aiming her gun, Lucca quickly fired off three rounds, dispatching everyone in the room but Crono. She knelt down by the guillotine and quickly undid his chains. "Let's blow this joint!"

Crono and Lucca sprinted down the grimy hallways and over the narrow walkways, desperate to find a way out when a deafening roar was heard. "What the hell was that?" asked Lucca, quite visibly shaken. Crono just shrugged and continued running. He skidded to a halt as a monstrosity of a machine trundled out onto the walkway. The walkway itself trembled under the massive strain put upon it.

From behind the machine leapt the Chancellor, screaming, "There they are! Dragon Tank, kill the prisoner and the girl!"

The large tank rumbled forwards, it's mouth opening as the walkway underneath it creaked and groaned. It clearly wasn't designed to support such a heavy weight. A sudden burst of flame came flying out from the tank's mouth, trying to engulf Crono. Jumping backwards, he felt the hairs on his arm burn off. Lucca let off a quick shot, hitting the head of the tank full on, sending sparks out of it. Crono rushed in and swung his sword round frantically, shearing off the neck, but the machine was still functioning. A massive gout of steam emerged from the vents at the back and the wheels sped up, sending the Dragon Tank flying towards Crono and Lucca, knocking them over. Shaking his head clear, Crono saw Lucca hanging onto the edge of the walkway. He dashed over to her and lowered his hand.

"Come on, take my hand! We haven't got time to piss about! That thing'll charge us again soon!"

Lucca clamped onto Crono's wrist and was promptly pulled back onto the walkway.

"Now to finish this thing," snarled Crono. Letting out a loud war cry, Crono charged at the Dragon Tank. Jumping onto it's back, Crono plunged his sword deep into its engine, tearing it apart. Crono felt the machine shudder underneath and instinctively leapt back, pulling his sword out with him. Diving to the floor of the walkway, Crono shielded himself and Lucca as the Dragon Tank exploded, sending an eruption of flames out into the sky.

The Chancellor was shocked, "They got the Dragon Tank! Fix it! Quickly!" The chancellor and the two guards accompanying him rushed out to fix it, but suddenly the walkway couldn't take the extra weight, giving way underneath them. Quite what happened next was a blur but the Chancellor and the two guards had formed a human bridge over the gap. Crono picked himself up and helped Lucca to her feet. Turning around, they dashed over the human bridge and down the stairwell, with the Chancellor's words echoing behind them, "Don't fool yourselves into thinking you've gotten away with this!" Crono and Lucca emerged into the entranceway to the castle.

"We're gonna have to bust through 'em," said Lucca, drawing her gun.

"No, they're innocent people, we leave them alone. We don't want their lives on our conscience!"

Crono and Lucca emerged from the stairwell to the cry of "They're escaping!" Several guards rushed at them, pinning them to the walls when a voice rang out clearly.

"Stop!" cried Marle as she appeared, wearing a beautiful pearl-white dress.

"Princess Nadia!" cried the guards and they dropped to one knee.

"This is my friend! Show him your respect!"

"B, but..."

"Can't you take orders?" Marle's royal nature took over, her sharp tongue lashing out against the guards.

"Of course!"

"Hold it right there!" boomed out a voice. Everyone turned to see the King stride out from his courtroom, the Chancellor right behind him.

"Do as King Guardia XXXIII says!" he cried shrilly.

"Father..." Marle whispered, her previous fiery temper gone in an instant.

"Silence Princess Nadia! The throne comes before your personal wishes!" he demanded.

"What! Just because I have a title doesn't mean I'm not a person!"

"You pick up strange ideas venturing outside!"

"I didn't 'pick up' anything! It's called 'common sense!'"

"Princess Nadia! Control yourself!"

"I despise you! I'm leaving!" she cried, tearing off her dress to reveal the clothes she had been previously wearing.

"Princess Nadia!" cried out the Chancellor, visibly shocked,

"Come on Crono!" called Marle as she charged out of the castle.

"Don't just stand there! After them!" bellowed the Chancellor and rushed off as fast as his stumpy legs could carry him.

Marle, Lucca and Crono dashed through Guardia forest, hotly pursued by the castle guards issuing forth cries of "There they are! Don't lose 'em!"

The trio ran around a bend in the forest path and found themselves in a clearing. "Oh no, it looks like a dead end!" moaned Marle.

"Look! Over there, a gate!" cried Lucca, pointing to a section of the air that was distorting everything around it.

"Come on!" cried Marle, heading straight for it.

"But we don't know where it'll take us!" said Lucca, trying to remain cautious despite the danger that chased them.

"Who cares! This place stinks anyway!"

Bursting into the clearing came the Chancellor, followed by about a dozen castle guards. "Princess Nadia!"

"This is completely irrational," muttered Lucca before opening up the gate and jumping in.

"Hurry, Crono!" called Marle as she dove in as well. Crono just shrugged, gave a cheeky little wave to the Chancellor and threw himself into the gate just before it closed.

"They... disappeared!"


	7. Time Waits For No Woman

**Chapter 6 - Time Waits For No Woman**

She emerged into an open area. Looking around her, she saw two mechanical contraptions, one either side of her. _So these must be Lucca's telepods, the catalyst for the whole _mess. Stepping forward, Destiny took in a deep breath and sighed contentedly. "I'm home at last..." A smile almost rose to her lips but she shook it off.

Destiny strode off through the Millennial Fair, taking in all the colours around her, people laughing and having fun, dancing, singing and joking. Destiny could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, _it's been so long since I could be a part of this, too many years have passed since those bastards took me and stole my life..._

She jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder. Whirling around she stared into the black-cloaked figures face, or at least, what she could see of it that wasn't obscured by a large black mask.

"They're not here anymore; they fled from the castle and are now in 2300AD," was all he uttered before turning and walking away.

"Th... thank you!" she called out as the stranger merged into the crowds. Destiny turned round and started back to the telepods, but paused. _Maybe I should just wait for them here? Or should I go after them and meet them in 2300AD? No, it's too dangerous for me on my own; I have to wait...but where?_

Making up her mind, Destiny strode off through the crowd of people milling about. _They're all unaware; none of them have a clue what's going on, how a small group of individuals will save this world they live in, not for themselves but for the people yet to be born, for the future generations..._

She stood there staring at the building, a small unassuming house built with tender, loving care. _How could the home of someone so important be so... so quaint?_ She just stood there trying to pluck up the courage as the front door opened.

"Can I help you dear? You seem to be a little bit lost."

"N--, no, I'm not lost. Th-- this is just where I was heading actually," Destiny stammered. _I'm talking to the woman who gave birth to him and I'm talking like an idiot! Goddammit!_ "I was looking for Crono. Is he in? I looked for him at the fair but I couldn't find him."

"Haven't you heard dear? He was arrested for 'attempted kidnap of royalty', but he escaped earlier today. No-one has seen him since."

"Is it alright if I wait for him here? I'm sure he'll be back soon."

"I guess not," Crono's mother replied, turning to go back into the house, but she stopped and whirled around. "Were you sent by the Chancellor to arrest my son when he comes back? Coz' if so, I'll never let you near him!"

_There's something so familiar about her, like I've known her all my life..._ "You have nothing to fear from me, I mean you or your son no harm."

"Hmm... I guess you're a little young to be working for them. But how do you know Crono? As far as I knew, his only friends were Lucca and Fritz. I'm sure he would have told me about you."

Thinking fast, Destiny replied, "We only met a few days ago at the Millennial Fair... I'm new in town and Crono was showing me around."

The two of them walked in and Crono's mother offered Destiny a seat. Planting herself down, Destiny took in her surroundings. Wood panelling covering the walls, carefully polished wood-stain floors with an old rug lying over it. A portrait of a man hanging over the fireplace: Destiny guessed it was Crono's father. Strangely, he looked familiar to her as well. The frame had been exquisitely carved, embellished with roses that seemed almost real... it reminded her of work her father had done. Destiny drifted back in time to those days... Destiny sat on a stool, swinging her legs back and forth, watching her father slaving over the furniture he was working on. Sweat running down his bare back, occasional grunts of exertion as he painstakingly etched out the detailing...

"Are you OK dear?"

Destiny shook out of her memories. "Pardon? Oh, I'm fine, just remembering my old home. It was quite similar to this. My father spent months at a time working on new pieces of furniture for the house."

"My husband was like that. Just about everything in this house was made by him. He took such pride in his work, especially when he was called up to work for the King, but those days are over. There... was an incident and he's been struggling to find work, taking jobs wherever he can. He's away right now, trying to find a new job. It gets so lonely with only Crono and me here. We've struggled to support him, but without a regular income, it's been so to-- oh, what am I thinking of! Twittering on like this, you don't need to be burdened down with our problems!"

"Don't worry about it, everyone needs to talk to someone. You can't let everything bottle up inside, it has to come out somewhere and it's better for it to be controlled than to just explode."

"How does one so young as you get so wise?"

"I've... had a lot of experience. My life may have been short, but it's been full of grief. I know about problems and dealing with them: I've found my way, so maybe you can find yours. Me, I sing. It's my only release. Everyone has one, it's just a matter of looking inside of yourself to find it and bring it forth. I mean, what are you good at?"

"What, apart from fussing, worrying and cleaning?" she snorted. "That seems to be all I do these days... I don't know really... I used to enjoy painting when I was younger but that seems so long ago now. And where can I find the time to paint anymore?"

"Don't find the time to paint, make it. It's your life, you have to remember to look out for yourself as well as Crono." Destiny paused as Crono's mother laughed.

"Oh, don't mind me, I just find it amusing I'm getting all of this advice from someone less than half my age. You kids grow up so fast these days, it's scary!" Crono's mother shook her head, before looking up directly into Destiny's eyes. "I don't seem to remember catching your name dear."

"Oh, how rude of me, I'm Destiny," she said as she extended her hand.

Crono's mother took it and shook it warmly. "It's such a pleasure to meet someone so mature as yourself. Please feel free to drop by whenever you want to!"

"I think I might take you up on that offer," Destiny replied, smiling for the first time in years. "However, I've got the feeling it might be a while before Crono comes back. Do you mind if I go now and look for him somewhere else?"

"No problem at all, I might just go and paint something!"

"It was very nice meeting you and I hope to do so again in the future." With a bow, Destiny left the house and strode back to the Millennial Fair. _Where the hell do I recognise them from? I know them somehow... if only I could remember..._ Arriving at the telepods, Destiny made up her mind where she was going next.


	8. A Stitch In Time

**Chapter 7 - A Stitch In Time**

Crono, Lucca and Marle emerged into a gloomy room. Metal encased them, the floor, walls and ceiling all made of the same material. Standing up, Marle took in her surroundings. "There's no way the Chancellor can reach us here. But, where are we?"

Joining her, Lucca walked up to a door, studying it. "The civilization here seems so... advanced... like we're in another world." Shaking her head, Lucca headed for the exit. "We've got to find some people and find out what year it is."

"Sounds like a plan to me, let's do it," replied Crono and followed after her with Marle in tow. _This is just great, where the hell has that bitch got us now? She's been nothing but trouble since we met..._

Outside, arctic winds blew, hail pouring from the black sky soaking through their clothes. The landscape solely consisted of wreckage, destroyed buildings strewn all over as far as the eye could see. What little land they could see was just mud, clinging to their clothing.

"Jeez, what a dump!" whinged Marle.

"Shut the hell up, will ya? It's your bloody fault we're here in the first place so don't bitch to us about how crappy this place is!" stormed Crono.

Firmly rebuked, Marle just kept her mouth shut, but her thoughts were hardly silent. _Who the hell does he think he is, talking to a princess like that? I'm royalty! He should bow down to me, not curse at me like I'm some silly little girl!_ Lucca wisely said nothing, keeping her distance from the warring pair.

The trio made their way through some laboratories, keeping their eyes out for anything that could be dangerous, but nothing showed up.

"It's creepy, it's like there's nothing alive anymore... we're the only activity in this entire world..." whispered Lucca, her voice cowed by the oppressive silence.

"There has to be someone alive here, it's just a matter of finding them, that's all," responded Crono.

"LOOK! There's a big dome over there. Let's check it out, there might be someone there," cried Marle.

Silence resumed, they headed towards the darkened structure, seemingly dead to the world. As they arrived, it seemed even darker as if it was rejecting them, urging them to leave it alone. They weren't wanted there, they didn't belong, as if there spirit could somehow infect it, making it return from its eternal slumber.

Taking a grip of the door handle, Crono tried to pull it open but it refused to move. Straining his entire body, Crono put all his strength into pulling it open but it still refused to move.

"Here, let me have a go," volunteered Marle with a mischievous grin on her face.

"If I can't do it, you sure as hell won't be able to," snorted Crono with derision.

"Watch and learn muscle-head," Marle threw back and sauntered towards the door. Taking hold of the handle, she pushed it and the door slowly opened with an ear-splitting screech as it ground against the solid metal floor. Saying nothing, but with a cheesy grin on her face, Marle strode inside. Shamefacedly, Crono followed her with Lucca just behind trying not to burst out laughing, but unable to hide the impish grin that covered her face.

Inside, the team noticed the nauseous gases that filled the air, making it cloudy and stinging their eyes. Striding across the metal walkway, Marle noticed a bunch of people all gathered up at one end of the room. Speeding up into a trot, she quickly made her way over, but stopped when she saw the devastation that lay in front of her. Barely stifling a scream, she turned and buried her face in Crono's shoulder as he arrived. He just stood there shocked, taking in the scene around him. No-one had been left alive, all of them had their throats cut. One body lay away from the rest facing the rest of the bodies, signalling he was the last one killed, most probably this groups leader. He was an old man, slightly balding with white wispy hair straying from his head. The blood was covering the floor, but most of it had dried.

"This was recent... not all of that blood is dry. Whoever did this may still be around, lets be VERY careful..." murmured Crono, loud enough for Lucca and Marle to hear, but quiet enough for it to not stray any further. Straining his ears, Crono heard a slight shuffling sound and whirled around. Gesturing to the other two, Crono made his way to the ladder where the sound came from. He slowly lowered his head through the hole, looking around. He nearly fell down the hole as the scream came.

A little girl, barely more than five years old was huddled up in the corner, trying to make herself as small as possible...

"Marle, you talk to her, try to calm her down and find out what happened here. Lucca, you help me check out the rest of this place. There may be other people still alive here."

"N... no, they're all de-- dead!" the little girl cried before resuming her silence

"Hush... hush... you're safe with us. We mean you no harm, but we need to know what happened here," Marle whispered reassuringly to the girl.

Hesitantly, the little girl spoke, "Two days ago some people came here. They were all dressed in black, nothing else. They lined all the people up and killed them! They made Doan watch it all before they killed him as well and then they left and... and..."

"What about you? How did you get away?"

"I don't know... they just let me live, I don't know why."

Confused, Marle, Lucca and Crono begun talking in harsh whispers. "What are we going to do with her? We can't just leave her here, we have to do something," Lucca said.

"Don't worry, I know just where to take her," answered Crono. Crouching down in front of the little girl, he asked, "How would you like to live in a wooden house with me and a very nice lady? Marle and Lucca here will be sure to visit us in our new house. Wouldn't that be nice?"

A smile struck the little girls face and she rushed over to Crono and hugged him around the neck.

"Yes you can stay with us, we've just got to finish some business here and then you can come and live with me! Do you know what else there is here darling?"

Releasing Crono's neck, she took his hand and led him through an open doorway. "I guess she wants us to follow her, so lets go."

"But what if there's something dangerous down there? If she gets killed..."

"Don't worry, if there was anything down there, those guys in black probably took care of it. There should be nothing for us to worry about."

"Well, if you're so sure..."

They set off down the long corridors, passing the strewn remains of several robots. Their internal fluids had leaked all over the place, making the floor slippery. They eventually reached the computer room.

Gazing at all the technology around her, Lucca was obviously in heaven, a wild-eyed childish look on her face. "So this is the info centre. Good, the computer's still operational. If we run a search on time warps, we might find our Gate!" Rapidly hitting buttons, Lucca found the right one. The screen lit, showing a map of the continent. "Here, got it! East of Arris Dome... that would be... Proto Dome, I believe," she stated, pointing towards the screen.

"Leave it to Lucca! I'm beginning to think you could do anything with this device!" Walking towards the console, Marle paused. "Say, what does this button do?" Reaching over she pressed it. The huge screen flared up again, this time with a different message. "1999AD? Visual record of the "Day of Lavos"..."

The four watched the screen avidly as something rose from the ground. It started spraying hot needles of pure energy into the sky, which came raining down on the world, destroying all they came into contact with. The little girl buried her face in Crono's jerkin, refusing to watch the scenes of destruction unfurling before them. Shocked, Marle whispered, "Uh, what...IS that?"

"Lavos? Is that what's destroying our world!" said a visibly shocked Lucca.

"NO! NO WAY! I refuse to believe it! This... this can't be the way the world ends..." Turning to Crono, Marle's face was livid. "Crono... There's only one thing we can do! We must change history! Just like Crono did when he saved me!"

"I... guess so... it was a stroke of luck that we were sent here through that Gate," murmured Lucca.

"Well, lets rock and roll, we've got a world to save," said Crono as he headed for the exit.

The four made their way out of the dome and back into the hail outside. Crono clutched the little girl close to his chest where she had fallen asleep. Trekking through the barren wasteland, they finally arrived at Proto Dome. Inside they saw a young woman with her back to them, clad entirely in black, talking to herself.

"This is wrong. It's all wrong! They haven't been here yet, I know that. Gaspar would have told me otherwise... This door is meant to be sealed shut." Spinning around, she continued, "and Prometheus was supposed to be right he--" She stopped as she caught sight of the four standing in the doorway. "Oh crap... now really isn't a good time..."

"Who the hell are you?" asked Marle, aiming her crossbow for in-between the woman's eyes, with a scowl on her face. "And what the hell are you doing here?"

"My name is Destiny and my story is rather long."


	9. Meeting Time

**Chapter 8 - Meeting Time**

"I'm an agent of a covert organisation called the Hand of Kronos. We..." Destiny paused, finding it difficult to explain what she had lived with for so long. "We deal with problems in time, when a time-line changes that is not for the best... we fix it and return it to its natural state OR we make sure that it goes to one that is beneficial for all."

"Well that's nice," said Marle, the sarcasm in her voice clearly evident, "but why are you here?"

"There has been a corruption in this time-line, one that threatens all life on this planet and I've been sent back to fix it. We don't know what the cause of the divergence is, but I hope to find it whilst accompanying you in your quest. I assume you know of Lavos now?"

"We... saw the recording in Arris Dome. We saw what it did to our world. We CAN'T let that happen!"

Shaking her head, Lucca spoke up, "One thing is worrying me, how are we supposed to stop Lavos? What can we do? We're just a bunch of teenagers!"

"That's the thing, you've stopped it before in a different time-line. You and four others teamed up and fought against the planet's future and finally defeated the alien life-form known as Lavos. But as I've said, there has been a divergence and now it won't happen. Unless I fix the problem, this world will be destroyed and so will I. I'm not just doing this for the world you live in, I'm also doing it for my very existence and that of millions of others, all of who are doomed unless I fix it."

"Why just you? If this entire world is threatened, why isn't everyone from the Hand of Kronos here to re-align the time-line?"

"I... I don't know. All I know is that I was specially picked for this mission and that I have to save the world. Beyond that, I don't know much else. For all I know, all of the Hand of Kronos is working on this, just not where I can see them," Destiny replied, not knowing she was partially correct...

"Something else, if the time-line has been changed, how do you know about us saving the world?"

"It's kinda complicated. Basically, the Hand of Kronos transcends time. The headquarters are out in space, surrounded by what we call a time-bubble. It surrounds the entire complex, forcing it into all time zones. Basically, you could say it is omnichronic; it's in all times, all at once. Through this, we can observe any changes in the time-line without being affected by it ourselves. We stay in a sort of time-line of our own devising, impervious to the changes around us."

"So if there are all these changes in the time-lines, what happens to the time-lines that existed before?"

"They simply cease to exist as far as we know. It's possible that all the time-lines are out there in parallel universes; we just don't know how to get to them. Even if we could, why would we want to? It's not our time-line; we're not affected by it so why would we bother? We have enough problems in our own one..."

"OK, enough of this crap, what the hell are we gonna do now though?" asked Crono, speaking up for the first time.

"Go through the gate. There's someone there you need to meet and I need to talk to him as well."

"I don't see we've got much choice, let's do it."

Destiny turned around and pulled something out of one of her pockets. Aiming it at the gate, she pressed a button and it opened up. Quickly, she stuffed it back into her pocket before the others could see what it was.

"What was that?" asked Lucca, ever curious.

"It... it's not important," she replied, hurriedly stepping into the gate, the others following her quickly, the little girl still asleep in Crono's arms.

The bands of time encompassed them, enveloping them safely until they reached their destination. They slowly drifted to the ground inside the beam of white light, another one parallel with it. Crono, Lucca and Marle looked around, taking in their new environment, the Victorian-style cobbled floor lit up by no discernable light source. The room was lined with a rickety wooden fence, separating the room from eternal darkness.

"Where are we?" asked Marle.

Ignoring her question, Destiny walked through the gate, into another room, almost identical except with a large lamppost in the middle and Gaspar standing underneath it.

"Hey," was all he said as usual.

"Excuse me sir, but where are we?" asked Lucca.

"It's quite simple really. When 4 or more human beings step into a time warp, the Conservation of Time theorem states they will turn up at the space-time coordinates of least resistance. The end of time. Here." A frown appeared on his face as he continued, "Disturbances in the space-time continuum have increased recently. Far too many folks are just popping in here... I fear something is having powerful effect on the very fabric of time..." It was quite clear Gaspar was becoming rather agitated about something.

"What's wrong?" asked Destiny, a worried look crossing her face.

"Who is she?" he asked, pointing to the little girl in Crono's arms, a note of panic in his voice, sweat running down his face.

"We found her in Arris Dome, 2300AD. Everyone else there had been murdered, their throats cut."

"Di... did she say what they wearing?" he stammered, all the colour draining from his face.

"She said they were dressed all in black, nothing else."

"Th... this can't be!" Clutching at his chest, Gaspar leaned back against the lamppost, his breathing ragged as he grimaced in pain. All of the colours bled out of his vision as he slumped down, colourless faces surrounding him, staring down at him as everything slowly became dark. "Th... the Black Wi... Wind howls..." he managed to croak before lapsing into unconsciousness.

"Spekkio, get out here now!" called Destiny.

The small door burst outwards and a red Nu loped forwards. "Gaspar!" Turning to Destiny he quickly asked, "What happened here?"

"I think he's had a heart attack! Can't you heal him?"

Crouching down, Spekkio leant over the old man, examining him. Finally, he stood up and let out a sigh, his shoulders slumping down. "I can do nothing to help him. He is already dead."

"Can't we cast a spell or something to bring him back? Or use the time egg?" cried Destiny.

"He died of natural causes. No magic can rectify that. Only death caused by one who can use magic can be reversed. He's gone, there's nothing we can do now."

"The black wind howls... what's that supposed to mean?" asked Marle.

"No, he didn't say it like that; capital B and a capital W... it was a name, not a description," replied Destiny; cold ripples running down her spine.


	10. Something Wicked This Way Comes

**Chapter 9 - Something Wicked This Way Comes**

The room was virtually pitch-black, only a dim glow from five candles giving any light. The shadows crept around, small shuffling noises breaking the eerie silence. As a big iron door opened, light flooded into the room, revealing the pentagram on the floor with the candles on the five inner points. Three people clad in black robes, hoods drawn over their faces stood at three of the points.

"You're finally here brother and sister. We've been waiting for you for several hours. What was the delay?"

"We... found a rather remarkable sacrifice that we thought you would be pleased with." Turning, she called into the corridor to one of the adepts. "Bring him in."

Kicking and yelling, a figure was dragged in by two adepts. His purple hair lay straggled across his face, making it almost impossible to see it. Help upright, he flicked his hair back revealing his pale white skin.

"Janus Zeal... this is a treat! But I'm almost afraid to ask... what time zone did you get him from?"

"Before he tried to summon Lavos in 600 AD... he still doesn't know about his sister yet."

"Schala? What have you done to her!" Janus cried out. "If you've hurt her, I'll..."

"You'll what? In case you haven't noticed, you've been stripped of your magic, you've got no weapons... there isn't a single thing you can do. But don't worry, we haven't done anything to Schala... yet."

Janus burst from the grip of the two adepts and threw himself at the leader, but found himself trapped in midair, unable to move.

The leader shook his head, a malicious grin just visible under his cowl. "Now that was uncalled for!" With a flick of his finger, Janus fell to the floor, landing heavily. Trying to push himself back up, he was shoved to the floor by the boot pressed firmly against his back. "Strap him down and prepare him."

Turning to the other cloaked members, he asked, "What news do we have of Destiny Morad?"

"She's joined up with Crono, Lucca and Marle and they've just left the End of Time."

"Did they find the girl in Arris Dome?"

"Yes, and they still have her with them. They left for 1000AD to leave the girl with Crono's parents... there has also been an unexpected bonus. Gaspar has died."

"Gaspar! How?"

"He had a heart attack when he realised who the girl was, but he never had a chance to tell them."

"So they're still unaware about her identity?"

"Yes sir, they still don't have a clue."

"Good, so all of our plans are progressing correctly?" With a nod from the rest of the group, it was time for the ceremony to begin. "You're going to enjoy this Janus. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be able to do this and appease our God."

"Wha... what are you talking about?"

"Just listen and learn... you may just recognise it!"

Standing back, the five cloaked figures took their positions on the outer points of the pentagram, starting to chant. The words were soft at first, but slowly rose in volume and harshness.

_Neuga Ziega Zieber Zom, now the chosen time has come  
Neuga Ziega Zieber Zom, now the chosen time has come  
Neuga Ziega Zieber Zom, now the chosen time has come  
Neuga Ziega Zieber Zom, now the chosen time has come_

The leader raised his hands into the air, calling out with vehemence, "Exchange this world for oblivion!"

Janus thrashed against his bonds as he realised what they were doing. "No! Not this!" Although he couldn't see it, he could feel the gate open up below him as it sucked them all in.

Next thing, they were in an unreal plain of existence, the sky and ground gone, instead replaced by a shimmering blue light, Lavos hulking over them. Sweat ran down Janus' face, as he knew the fate that had befallen him. The enormous beak opened up, the globe inside emitting a faint white light. Quickly, it increased in intensity, surrounding Janus, absorbing him. Everything turned white except Janus, screaming as he slowly disintegrated, leaving nothing behind.

As the light returned, the five were back in the dark room, the only evidence anything happened was the candles were now out, smoke wafting upwards.

"That was refreshing."


	11. Rise Of The Phoenix

**Chapter 10 - Flight Of The Phoenix**

"What now?" asked Crono.

Trying to gather her wits about her, Destiny took a while to reply. "You need to talk to Spekkio and do what he says. It's very important, just go through the door there."

Nodding, Crono went through, followed by Lucca and Marle; the little girl was left with Destiny.

Destiny sat down and started thinking, despondent thoughts rising up...

_Dear god... can I put all of this right? If Gaspar is dead, we can't get the Time Egg, thus Crono is doomed... Lavos can still be defeated without him but what kind of a reward is that? He puts his life on the line and he dies? No, I can't let that happen and it needn't. All I need to do is fix the time-line and Gaspar won't die, thus Crono will be resurrected... but what caused it? It must have been in the past, before Crono was supposed to meet Marle... so that narrows it down to a couple million years...great, just great... it may be just one tiny little thing and I've got to find it... a real needle in a hayst--_

Destiny's thoughts were cut off by a scream. Looking down, the little girl had finally woken up and a look of sheer terror was in her eyes as she looked up at Destiny. Crono burst through the door, quickly followed by Lucca, Marle and Spekkio.

"What the hell did you do to her!" screamed Marle.

"N... nothing! She just woke up, took one look at me and started screaming her head off!"

Marle walked to the corner the little girl was hiding in and crouched down. "What's wrong? What did the nasty lady do to you?" But the little girl shook her head. "What's wrong then? What made you scream?"

"He... her clothes... she's dressed just like the people who killed Doan!"

"Was she one of them?" asked Lucca. Resuming the silence, the little girl only shook her head.

Turning to Destiny, Crono had to ask, "Do you know anything about this? Anything at all?"

"No," was all the response Crono got.

"So what do we do now?"

"You three need to go back to your own time-zone, I need to get back to the Hand of Kronos and do some research on the people that would do something like that to her family."

"Why is it so important?"

"It was already known you would be going there and the fact she was deliberately left alive seems very suspicious to me. As if she had been left there so you could find her..."

"What! You think she's some kind of bad guy?" asked Marle furiously.

"Not at the moment, but who knows what she'll grow up into... all I know is that this didn't happen in the original time-line. It may just be coincidence but I'd rather not take that chance..."

_Oh dear god... it doesn't even have to be in the past that it the time-line was changed! In the new future that came from Crono defeating Lavos... all of that is new and in trying to save the world, could they have doomed it instead? But for that to work, they'd have to have access to the time-travel technology... could it be someone inside of the Hand of Kronos? No that's impossible... they have a screening process. No-one would be able to bypass that and even if they did, when would they be able to do this? All usage of the equipment is monitored... they wouldn't be able to go anywhere without it being logged..._

Snapping out of her thoughts, Destiny noticed everyone had gone except Spekkio.

"What are you going to do now that Gaspar is gone?"

"I... don't know... It's odd, I've been here for eternity with only him for company and I never even got to know him, and now he's gone... I don't know what to do. I can't stay here on my own... I'd go crazy. Strangely enough, just knowing he was just outside my room was enough to keep me going all these years but now? I suppose I could go back to my old life but it's been so long... my memories are virtually non-existent, it's like I didn't exist before I stumbled into that time-warp... it's not like I'm even wanted back there."

Destiny nodded, already aware of Spekkio's haunted past. As a child he was taunted by other children because of his colour. Nu's were blue, everyone knew that, but Spekkio was red and was ostracised by his fellow kids because of it. When his ability to shape-shift beyond his control emerged, he was noticed by the elders of the village. Not open to reason, they excommunicated Spekkio because they were scared of him... even his family shunned him and he was forced to live away from all that he had known. He had spent a short period of time in the Kingdom of Zeal but never felt he belonged. He moved about frequently, never able to find a home until he stumbled upon a time-warp and was sucked into the End of Time. By then, he had learnt to survive by controlling his shape-shifting skills to scare off anything that tried to harm him, but he'd also found another skill. He could awaken the magic that lies dormant inside of everyone. Gaspar had seen the flow of time and knew that this skill would be necessary to save the planet from the awakening of Lavos...

Nu's were nomadic creatures when the wonder-lust came upon them, but otherwise, they lived in the same village they had always lived in since the birth of time. _All life begins with Nu, all life ends with Nu..._ Belthasar had once written that in the Kingdom of Zeal, reflecting back on how they had always been there. No-one knew how they had got there, but that as long as the planet existed, so had the Nu. Many Nu had settled there, finding an affinity with the magic using humans, one they had never had before or would again...

"Live your life, that's all I can say to help. Just keep on living and do what you want to do."

"I think I'm going to go back home, see if I can patch it up with my folks and the rest of the village..."

"All I know is it won't be the same here without you or Gaspar... it seems like it just got a whole lot bleaker here..."

The two parted ways, Spekkio staying to dispose of Gaspar's body. Destiny shuddered as she thought of the way Nu's deal with their dead; swallowing them whole... shaking her head, she slid open the fake wall and walked into the Atrium of Time and took the white pillar of light back to the Hand of Kronos...

"_Has she gone yet_?" came the voice in Spekkio's head.

"Yes, she just left," was the reply.

"_Well get over here and wake me up you clumsy idiot!_"

With a wry grin on his face, Spekkio loped over to Gaspar's body and removed the spell forcing Gaspar into what looked like death but in fact only separated his spirit from his body, thus giving the appearance of death.

Taking in a breath for the first time in half an hour, it was the sweetest lungful of air Gaspar had tasted. "Are you sure they're gone?"

"What do you take me for; an idiot? No, don't answer that!" replied Spekkio with a cheeky grin on his face.

"Well, it's time to put our plan into action then isn't it?"

"Time indeed my friend," said Spekkio before sticking his hand down his throat.

"You know I hate it when you do that... it's just rather disturbing!"

"Mmfgh hmngggh!" Finally, Spekkio pulled his hand out, clutching what looked to be a remote control. Pressing a button on it, he sat down to wait. A few minutes later, the Epoch mk.2 arrived.

"Well, what are we waiting around here for? It's time to get going!" And with that, the odd couple boarded the Epoch and set off through time...


	12. Always Darkest Before Dawn

**Chapter 11 - It's Always Darkest Before Dawn**

She set down inside the black pillar of light, or rather the pillar of an absence of light. It was as dark as her mood, no thoughts in her head just a compulsion to rip everything up. _This can't be happening... this can't be happening... this can't be happening..._ Striding forwards, she entered the archive library where all the information that could possibly be considered helpful was stored. Row after row after row of shelves filled the room, each one packed to the hilt with books. There was too much information here to be stored on a computer mainframe making it nearly impossible to find what you needed, but all of the books were equally important. They catalogued the entire history of time... as far back as they could go. It was amazing that the curators had even been able to document the final battle with Lavos...

All the books were catalogued and even the catalogues consisted of dozens of volumes. Fortunately, these were also placed on a computer mainframe making it a lot easier to navigate your way around. Sitting at a desk in front of a computer was Warren Stark; short spiky brown hair, thin-rimmed glasses so as to not spoil his appearance... _Great, just what I need now... one more self-assured arsehole that thinks one night means I can't resist him..._ Walking past him, Destiny prayed he didn't notice her, but it was to no avail.

"Hey babe, how's it going?"

"Oh, just fine and dandy. Everything is changed. It's all different and wrong... Gaspar died and--"

"What! Gaspar is dead? What happened?"

"He had a heart attack right in front of me... there was nothing anyone could do. Apparently magic can't reverse natural causes..."

"Even Spekkio couldn't help him?"

"Nope... and now Spekkio has left the end of time as well... he's gone home to try and patch things up with his family..." Thinking about it, it all seemed odd to Destiny how quickly everything had happened. "Actually Warren, there might be something you can help me with..."

"Oh yeah?" he said, a dirty grin appearing on his face.

"Don't flatter yourself Warren, one night doesn't make you some sort of love-god... No, before Gaspar died, he said something odd and I was wondering if you could tell me what it meant."

"Sure, go for it," he replied, the grin hastily taken from his face.

"The Black Wind howls... his dying words."

Warren just stared at her for what seemed an age before he finally blinked and shook his head. "The Black Wind howls? Those were his exact words?" With a nod from Destiny he continued, "Well... it depends on the context really. Black Wind with small letters is an exact quote of what Janus said to Crono and then later to Schala back in Zeal..."

"But with capital letters?"

"Well... it's just an urban legend... you know how these things get started... over-active imaginations and whatno--"

Cutting him off, Destiny snapped, "Just tell me Warren. This may well be important."

Chastised, Warren continued, "Well, as I said it's just an urban legend but there are rumours of a... how should I put it? A secret wing of the Hand of Kronos called the Black Wind... they do the dirty jobs... kill those that could disrupt the time-line... it's also been rumoured that they don't even serve the Council of Kronos... they're acting on their own to destroy time and the entire universe by reawakening Lavos..." Stopping, Warren looked at Destiny closely. "What's wrong? You've turned as white as a sheet!"

Snapping out of her trance, Destiny looked Warren in the eyes, naked fear clearly showing. Just looking at them made Warren shiver in fear. "Dear gods... what is it?"

"They're real Warren... the Black Wind exists..." she whispered, the words barely audible.

"What! You're kidding me right? The Bla--"

"Shut up you idiot! Keep your voice down... trust me when I say they're real. They could be anywhere at all..." Pointing to a Time Warden a couple of desks away, she continued, "She could be one, you could be one... hell, I could be one! Don't trust anyone here..."

"But what proof do you have?"

"A girl was found in 2300AD in the Arris Dome... everyone there had been murdered, one-by-one, their throats cut. One girl had been left alive on purpose... she said they were all dressed exactly like we are... she even thought I was one at first when she saw me... if you had seen the fear on that little girls face, you would have wanted to die..."

"Why don't you take this to the Council of Kronos then?"

"Because I don't know that they aren't part of the Black Wind... anyone, and I mean ANYONE could be a member... I'm taking a big risk even talking to you..."

"You don't seriously think I could be one of them do you?"

"Well... no..." Thinking to herself, she realised she was going to have to make a huge leap of faith, "Could you do me a massive favour? I can't stay here... I've got things to do, so I need you to look into the Black Wind for me... I need you to try and find anything at all that might give a clue as to who they might be..."

"I... I... I'll do it... Destiny... but I'm scared..."

_And you don't know the half of it..._ "So am I... so am I..." Getting up, she started walking out of the room, but just at the door, she stopped. Looking up to the top-right corner of the room, she saw the video camera fixed on her... Staring straight at it, she mouthed something to it and stalked out of the door...

* * *

"I'm coming for you..." That's what she said. Taking the headphones off, the man turned to the figure behind him.

"So she knows of our existence?"

"Positively, here's a transcript of the entire conversation... what should we do about them?"

"We leave Destiny alone... it was always known she would find out about us... as for Warren... I'll handle him personally..." With that, the figure turned and stalked out of the room, her long green hair flowing behind her...


	13. Burning In The Flame

**Chapter 12 - Burning Of The Flame**

"Do we trust her?"

That was the question that was hanging over the threesome's heads. Were they to put blind faith in someone who had done nothing to help or hinder them, or to dismiss someone who seemed to know a lot about what was going on?

"Everything she said could well have been a lie for all we know. What proof has she got to back up what she's said?" asked Marle.

"What proof is there that she's lied to us? We need all the help we can get in this," replied Lucca.

"Well, I just don't trust her. I don't care what she says, she just seems so... so dodgy. And what about the little girl? The way she reacted to her? Even if she wasn't one of the people who committed that atrocity in Arris Dome, she may be working with them..." shot back Marle.

"Look, it's a simple matter of whether we trust her or not. According to her there were others who helped us. How did we trust them? We must have taken them in on trust, so why not trust her?" said Crono, speaking up for the first time since they got back to 1000AD. He was still holding the little girl close to his chest.

"Well I see no problem with that Crono, she seemed pretty genuine to me. What about you Marle?"

"I still don't like her. There's something odd about her and I don't like it," answered Marle.

"Look, it's two-to-one here so we trust Destiny whether you like it or not Marle. It's already decided," finished Crono, settling the matter once and for all.

"Fine! If that's the way you want it!" Marle screamed at Crono and stormed off.

"Dammit! Here Lucca, take the girl. I'll meet you back at my house," he said as he passed the small girl over before running after Marle.

"Heh, left holding the baby." Lucca shook her head as she set off.

Crono found Marle sitting on a big rock, swinging her legs back and forth as she muttered to herself.

"What the hell is your problem?" stormed Crono.

"Doesn't my opinion count for anything? I'm just as much a part of this as you are, yet you just totally ignored me!"

"Calm down Marle. It's just I honestly feel we can trust her and she's got information that would be highly valuable to us. We can't just turn her down on the off-chance."

"But there's something wrong about her... I've got a bad feeling about taking her into our group. It's like... like... like she's gonna tear us apart. You and Lucca are the only friends I've ever had! You treat me like a normal person instead of some object of worship."

"I dunno about that," said Crono, a cheeky smile on his face and an eyebrow raised. "I could think of worse things to worship!"

Blushing, Marle looked away, trying not to show the grin on her face.

When she turned back to look at him, he took her hands. Staring into her eyes he spoke, "Me and Lucca have no intention of abandoning you, we like you too much. Who else could get us in this big a mess?"

Marle couldn't stop herself from giggling. Leaning forward, she gave Crono a quick kiss on the cheek. "You're a sweetie, you know that?"

Flashing a quick grin at her, Crono continued, "Seriously though, we're not abandoning you. I have my doubts about her as well but we need her help. Without her, how are we to know what we must do? Besides, she led us to Spekkio didn't she? Without that, we wouldn't have got our magic abilities," he said, raising his hand, a small bolt of lightning dancing in his hand.

"Yeah, but where else would we have gone? We would have got there when we went through the gate anyway."

"Ok, that's a fair point but still, why shouldn't we trust her? We have no reason not to as of yet."

"I... guess you're right. Just don't expect me to like her OK?" Giving him a quick hug, she stood up. "Thanks for the sweet words, they meant a lot to me."

"No probs, I'd do the same for Lucca any day."

Still close to him, she stared straight into his eyes. Not sure what she was doing, she leant forward again and kissed Crono on the lips. A little shocked, Crono kissed her back, his hands on her waist, hers around his neck, the heat of the passion consuming them. Breaking off from him. Marle stepped back. "I... uh... That may have not been a good idea..."

Silence was the only response as Crono stared at his feet. Finally he spoke up, "Uhh, let's get back to my house, Lucca will be waiting there."

With a nod, Marle and Crono made their way to the small wooden house, an uneasy silence between them.

"Where have you two been? I've been waiting for twenty minutes!" scolded Lucca.

"Sorry, that was my fault. I needed a bit of a pep talk and Crono was happy to give me one."

"I bet he was," replied Lucca, arching an eyebrow but keeping her face straight.

Marle blushed for the second time that day. "You know what I meant Lucca, don't try to twist it."

"Who, me? As if I'd do anything like that!" replied Lucca, a lascivious grin covering her entire face.

Taking the girl back from Lucca's arms, Crono walked through the door. "Mum? Where are ya?"

Bustling in from a doorway at the back, Crono's mother was a sight. Covered in paint, she had obviously taken up Destiny's advice. "Oh, oh my! Crono!" Rushing over, she gave her son a big hug. "Don't scare me like that! I was so worried about you!" She let him go when a strange sound came from between the two of them. Stepping back, she was shocked when she saw the little girl clutching onto Crono. "Wh... where did she come from? What have you done now Crono?"

Unsure of what to say, Crono was relieved when Lucca stepped forward, taking Crono's mother to the side. "We found her in Guardia Forest, all alone. Her family is dead. They had been... murdered and she was afraid. She ran away and had been living in the forest for a few weeks now. She's got no home and we were kinda wondering whether she could stay here with you and Crono."

"I can hardly throw her out now, could I? Of course she can stay here. God knows what your father is going to say about this when he gets back Crono, but he's going to have to put up with it!" Walking over, she took the reluctant young girl out of Crono's arms. "What's her name?"

"We... don't know. She's been a bit hesitant in talking to anyone, but she's taken a real shine to Crono. Actually, we can't stay long, there's uh... some business we have to attend to and it's kinda urgent."

"Oh, just hurry along but try and be back for tea! No need to worry about being arrested again, the King has issued a pardon for you Crono. It seems it was all the princess's fault..."

Blushing yet again, Marle tried to make herself look small behind Crono.

As the three left, Crono's mother set the little girl down. "Now what's your name then darling? Still not talking? That's no problem... you can tell me later, but first, lets get you out of those dirty clothes and into a nice warm bath, OK?"

At the girl's mystified expression, Crono's mother shook her head and picked her up, carrying the little girl to the bathroom. She smiled as she felt the small arms clasp around her neck in a hug... "We need to get your lovely green hair all clean sweetie."


	14. Moth To A Flame

**Chapter 13 - Moth To A Flame**

"The "girl" has now been deposited with Crono's mother but the question of Prometheus' disappearance has still been unresolved," reported the young man.

"This is Belthasar's meddling, I'm sure of it. We need to track that old fool down before he does anything too drastic to stop us. We also need to stop him from contacting Destiny... we can't let her find out too much or this whole operation could go down the drain and then, we are in some serious trouble."

"Yessir, I'll have a whole squad on it." Stepping forward into the light, his glasses sparkled as he continued, "Sir... maybe it would be a good idea to remove the tail from Destiny. If she picks up on him, she WILL be ruthless in getting any information out of him..."

"I was thinking the same thing, but we induct only the most loyal into our secret order. They know the penalty for talking."

Hesitant to question one of his seniors, the young man carried on, "Yes... but when Destiny has finished with them, they will tell her anything she wants to know. She... is very cold-hearted if she thinks what she is doing is for the best. I don't wish to question your judgement but if she finds out what is going on, we're as good as dead."

"I believe you may well have a point there. OK, call the man off."

With a smart salute, the young man marched out of the room.

"He's a tricky one isn't he? I'm not so sure we really want someone that... capable in our ranks at all..."

He tried to appear calm, even though her appearance had scared the crap out of him. "How long have you been there Alyssa?"

"Long enough... and you should know better than to call me that..."

Dropping to one knee, he bowed his head in reverence. "Forgive me your Highness, I desecrate your name by using it." Looking up at her as he rose, he spat out vehemently, "Are you happy now Alyssa?"

Surprised, Alyssa sensed something different about him. Silently releasing a scan spell, she realised who it truly was standing before her. "You and me are going to have a falling out sometime soon, and I think we both know who will come off the worse for wear because of it..."

His eyes narrowed as she hissed the words out, the very obvious threat not going over his head.

"Enough of this foolishness, we have more important things at hand for the moment..."

"Yes, we do, but we need to settle this now. If there are problems between me and you, what do you think is going on in the lower levels? No, we settle this now, once and for all."

"You think you can defeat me and become leader of the Zeitgeist project? I think not..." With a wave of her hand, she took the two into the next plain of existence. "And you certainly don't stand a chance against me here."

"I think you might be surprised Alyssa... there's a lot about me you don't know..."

"You think your secrets are hidden from me, Gaspar? You think I don't know who you are and what you're really doing here?" Waving her hand again, the image spell disappeared, leaving Gaspar standing there. Surprised, he took a few steps backwards, reaching behind himself, drawing a large, red sword out.

"No, don't tell me... that's Spekkio, right? The lone Nu with shape-changing abilities... outcast by all you knew as a child just because you were different. And you want to save the world because? What has it ever done for you? Have you had any happiness, any joy, any love? No, nothing! And for your life you've had to suffer pain, ridicule and rejection..."

As she felt a tap on her shoulder, she knew she was in trouble. Whirling around, she couldn't get out of the way of the Luminaire spell Spekkio had quietly been casting. The bright yellow dome rose up from the ground around her, quickly enveloping her in its vivacity. Bashing against the sides of it, irregardless of the pain, Alyssa knew it was hopeless, that soon it would implode... And implode it did, the walls crashing in on her, filling the entire space with a pure white light. Slowly fading away, Alyssa lay unconscious on the floor in-between Gaspar and Spekkio.

Reaching into his pocket, Gaspar pulled out the still slimy remote control. He jammed down on the button as the red Nu slung Alyssa over its shoulders. Quickly, the Epoch mk.2 arrived and the two got in, knowing they didn't have much time to spare before _IT_ came...

* * *

Elsewhere in the same complex, the man sat at the monitor, having just watched the whole event take place before his very eyes without lifting a finger to help Alyssa. His shoulders started to shake as he tried unsuccessfully to suppress a giggle, but that didn't last long...

_Another obstacle removed... but the question still remains, what is to be done about it? How much longer must this go on? No, I've no right to question this. It will happen eventually and then I will be free to take over... to become a god!_


	15. Something To Believe In

**Chapter 14 - Something To Believe In**

"So what do we do now?" asked Lucca as they left Crono's house. "We don't have a clue what we're supposed to do next."

"I suppose we've just gotta wait for Destiny to show up again... without her, we don't stand a chance."

"Hmph," was all the reply he got from Marle, still unsure of Destiny.

"So, we're just gonna sit around here, twiddling our thumbs whilst our world gets destroyed? Great... just great..."

"No need to wait at all."

Spinning around, the three saw Destiny standing there, impassive as ever.

"So what did you find out on your trip?" asked Crono, ignoring the stare from Marle.

"I think I know who killed the little girls family and that leaves a rather large question over who that girl really is..."

"What? You've gotta be kidding me! How could anyone that sweet and innocent be so evil?" Marle exclaimed.

"I didn't say she was evil, but since the people I believe killed the rest of her dome are a part of my organization, they know all about time. With that in mind and the fact she was deliberately left alive, I can't help but think there's something very, very wrong going to happen because of her."

Marle's voice came out as hard as stone, "So, what? Are we supposed to just condemn her because of some crackpot theory you have?"

"No, as you rightly pointed out, it's just a theory so we can't make any decisions on it but we can't discount it either."

"How can you be so cold and talking about her like that? You're heartless!" Marle cried out, slapping Destiny hard.

"That's enough Marle!" said Crono, his eyes flashing angrily. "She's done absolutely nothing wrong!"

"No, it's alright Crono. She is right, I am heartless," Destiny said, as cold as ice, slowly turning her head and looking him in the eyes. He shuddered as he saw the lack of life in the depths of her eyes.

_What the hell happened to you to make you this way?_ he thought, as his heart reached out to her. He just wanted to take her in his arms and tell her the world was OK, she could live her life, but something was stopping him... Marle?

"Come, we have work to do... you need to defeat a man called Magus in 600AD."

"Magus? As in the leader of the Mystics in the war against us? The one that just disappeared?" asked Lucca.

"Disappeared?" Destiny's eyebrows rose up in surprise. "Oh no... what have those fools done now?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" demanded Marle.

"It's the same thing they did in 2300AD, they've altered time... killing all those people, taking Prometheus..."

"Who!"

"Prometheus was an android you found in Proto Do--" Destiny said before she got cut off.

"I mean who is doing all this?" shouted Marle.

"The Black Wind..." was the reply, Destiny somehow making it sound sibilant.

They all shuddered, remembering Gaspar's dying words to them.

"So what exactly has happened then?" asked Lucca, ever curious.

"Well, he was supposed to summon Lavos in 600AD--"

"So this Magus guy created Lavos?"

Shaking her head, Destiny explained, "No, he merely summoned it. Lavos has been on, or rather in, this planet for millions of years, slowly absorbing the life from the planet until it can break free, and you've seen the consequences for that yourself."

"So why was this Magus trying to summon Lavos? Didn't he know that it would destroy the world and what stopped him?"

"Let me say... he had his reasons for summoning Lavos... he may have been wrong in doing so, but he honestly believed it was for the best."

"You... pity him? Despite all the innocent people that died in that war?"

"You don't know the story so don't judge him. If you knew what I knew, you wouldn't be so harsh about him."

"I think you had better tell us Destiny," Crono said, speaking up for the first time since he reprimanded Marle.

"Well, it starts all the way back in 65,000,000BC... Lavos crashed into our planet and quickly burrowed deep underground where it lives to this very day, with virtually no-one knowing about it. Then in 12,000BC, the world was completely different. Everyone, well, I say everyone but that's not true... lots of people had magic back then and they lived in the Kingdom of Zeal. One of these people was a young boy, a prince even, and his name was Janus. He loved his older sister Schala a lot and she was one of the few people he talked to. He was very much a social pariah.

"Anyway, his mother, Queen Zeal had fallen under Lavos' power though no-one had realized it, except her children. She ordered her scientists to create something called the Mammon Machine. It was a huge power source that supposedly fed off of the energy coming forth from Lavos and provided power for everything they needed. It was to be put in the Undersea Palace, the crowning achievement of the entire kingdom, but when they activated it, something went terribly wrong. Lavos was awakened, and though he didn't have enough power to rise, he still caused havoc, opening gates in the atrium of the Undersea Palace. Four people were sent through time to different zones... Gaspar to the end of time, Belthasar to 2300AD, Melchior to 1000AD and Janus to 600AD.

"Janus was found by a mystic called Ozzie and when he saw Janus' magic, he let him join the upcoming rebellion. Janus was still very young and easily swayed by the evil ways of Ozzie and he became even more cold, but slightly twisted as well. From that day forth, Janus was no more, instead there was only Magus. One thing kept him going, his love for his sister, Schala. Blaming Lavos for taking her away from him, he sought to destroy it and used Ozzie and the mystics as a cover for him as he learnt the dark arts he would need to summon Lavos and destroy it in vengeance... that was why he was trying to summon Lavos in 600AD."

"I see... but why did he have to start that war? So many lives lost..."

"He knew that what he was going to do would save billions more lives, a few thousand really didn't matter to him. Maybe it was because he was twisted, but in the long run, it was for the best... or it would have been, but he wasn't strong enough anyway."

"So why didn't you change it then? Save all those lives?"

"The slightest change in time could have caused a major catastrophe... we couldn't afford to not do that, but the Black Wind has..."

"So what now? If Magus is gone, what are we supposed to do?"

"We go back to 600AD anyway, maybe Ozzie tried to do the spell. Magus led the mystics to believe that Lavos would help them win..."

"Well, if this Ozzie person tried to do the spell, wouldn't we all be living in a world like it is in 2300AD?"

"Not if what happened originally did so again. Someone interrupted Magus before he cast the spell... I believe you've already met him, his name is Glenn, but you know him as Frog."

"So why do we have to go back to 600AD?"

"Because the spell that Magus cast awoke Lavos but not completely... it created a gate which ended up taking you to 65,000,000BC to witness Lavos' arrival to the world and then to an era you hadn't been to before... It's important that you stay as close to the original time-line as possible. Time is elastic, it can take a certain amount of strain without breaking so if I fix what happened before and you stay close enough to the original occurrences, it should all return to normal but, very importantly, still with knowledge of the changes that happened so we can prevent them from happening again."

"And if we don't?"

"Then the future will be destroyed and everyone will die."


	16. Shades Of Grey

**Chapter 15 - Shades Of Grey**

"I think that went rather well, don't you?" asked Gaspar, as he turned to the red Nu.

"Okay, so we've faked your death, making everyone think you're out of the picture, including those who need us, you've captured Alyssa from right underneath their noses whilst probably blowing your cover... you must feel so proud of yourself," Spekkio replied, a scornful look on his face.

"Well, I have to admit, that may be true and yes, it would hinder me, but it won't stop me except plain dumb bad luck. We've spent so long planning this, I just hope Destiny pulls through on her part."

"Yes, she... is dodgy. Unreliable. This whole plan will either fail or succeed because of her and we know so little about her. Isn't there another way of doing this?"

"Several, but they're even riskier."

"How much more?"

"Lets say, a snowball stands more chance of surviving in Hades than we do of surviving as a species via the other plans."

"So... not much then?"

"Yes, not much."

They stood in silence in the dark-grey steel room.

Finally breaking the silence, Spekkio spoke, "What now then?"

"Now we--" Gaspar stopped as he heard the sigh come from the corner.

"Waking up my dear? You were out for a bit longer than we thought."

"Wh... where am I?" Looking around as she slowly gathered her senses, Alyssa recognised her surroundings from intelligence photos. "Belthasar's laboratory..."

"Indeed, but don't start hoping for a rescue anytime soon, we've removed the tracer that was inside you."

_Clever bastards... not that I need a tracer..._ "Do you really think you can stop us Gaspar? We've been planning this for decades, we can't be defeated now."

"I wouldn't discount us that easily my dear, we may surprise you yet."

"Hah!" was all the response Alyssa dignified him with.

Stepping forward angrily, Spekkio couldn't keep hold of his temper. "Just because you're some fucking Queen, it don't mean you're any better than us bitch. I mean, what the hell do you actually expect to gain from all of this? It's sheer bloody lunacy!"

"Eternal life of course... what do you think I expect?"

"Eternal life! You most certainly don't want that my dear. Trust me, I'm the closest thing that to having an infinite lifetime and I can tell you it sure as hell ain't no fun. There's nothing to do. Everyone you love, everyone you care about, everything you hold dear will die until you're the only one left standing there. Of course, since you don't even know what love is, that won't matter to you. But pray, please do tell me, what makes you think that you are going to get eternal life when we all know you will be dead?"

"We chosen few won't die... we will live on forever taking care of the new species, guiding them, directing them in their new lives."

"You may rule the land, but what good is that with no humans to rule over, only this new species?"

"Humans? Who gives a shit about humans?"

"We do, "replied Spekkio, stone-faced.

"Why should they bother to keep the bargain that they make with you? Why would they, to put it in your rather less eloquent words, give a shit about you?" said Gaspar, wincing at his own expletive.

"Because they always have done before."

"They've never gotten their full goal before though, have they? Control of the whole planet... what do you think they will do then? They can instruct the new species perfectly well themselves... you're irrelevant to them when you've done your job, and they'll destroy you like they'll destroy everyone else on this planet. They learnt their lesson from the whole Lavos incident... they won't let any humans survive if there's even the slightest chance they'll rise up against them. You will die, there's no doubt about it... the question is, will it be for your crimes or because of your crimes?"

"What do you know of them? How can you speak of them that way? You are insignificant to them, a mere bug that is biting at them. When the time comes, they will crush you..." she hissed at him, before spitting at him.

"Leave it Gaspar, we knew this would be pointless. She proved on the Black Omen she was totally overcome by Lavos' power. Now is no different. Just leave the wasted bitch where she is, or even better, leave me alone with her for a while. Then something useful might come out of this."

"Don't tempt me Spek', don't tempt me. But it's not her fault she's doing what she's doing, it's them... they are to blame, not her. She's only human like me, it's in our nature; we're weak physically, mentally and emotionally. We always were and always will be. Just leave her be... leave her be." With that, Gaspar and Spekkio made for the door.

"Wait! Aren't you going to tie me up or something?" Alyssa cried.

"What for? It's not like you can escape any time soon..." Spekkio said before leaving.

"I kinda lied earlier. This is Belthasar's laboratory, just not the one you thought it was... Let me just say that we're not in 2300AD anymore and leave it at that."

"Where the hell am I th--" Alyssa paused for a moment before rephrasing the question. "When the hell am I then?"

"A land before time..."

And with that, Gaspar left, leaving Alyssa all alone in the room. _What the hell did he mean by before time? There's no such thing as before time... is there?_

Alyssa was so lost in thoughts, she didn't see or hear the door slide open again, and was totally surprised when she was slammed to the wall.

"Poor Gaspar thinks you won't be able to do anything, even whilst you're here, but I'm not that gullible," Spekkio growled vociferously. "And whilst I'm at it, I figure I should get some good information out of you."

"There's nothing you can do to me that will make me talk. I will not betray my Gods!"

"Say... have you ever watched this twentieth century film called Terminator Two? No? Then you're gonna love this..." Spekkio raised his right hand and pointed a finger at Queen Zeal's shoulder.

"What do you think you're gonna do with that? Point the information out of me? Hah!"

Tilting his head to the side, Spekkio gave a malicious grin. Suddenly, his finger shot forward, stretching out into a cold steel spike, ramming through her shoulder. Alyssa couldn't hold back the scream as it shrilly escaped her lips.

"Ooh, that's gotta hurt...Feel like talking yet? No? Good... I want some fun..." Spekkio's extended finger quickly reverted back to its usual state. "What to do... what to do... I know..." Alyssa actually shuddered at the grin on his face as he lowered his hand between her legs.

"Wh... what are you doing to me?" she asked, a slight tremble in her voice. She felt her underwear be ripped away easily. She knew what was coming and she tilted her head upwards towards the ceiling, closing her eyes tightly shut. But that wouldn't stop him...

Her eyes flared open as his fist drove into her, a hoarse grunt escaping from her lips. She felt it liquefy, making its way slowly through her body, coating her vital organs. The pain was so intense, she couldn't make a sound. It felt like her very soul was being raped, stripped away of all its barriers.

"I have my 'hand' around every vital organ in your body, and a few non-essential but all the more painful bits as well. You talk, or I start squeezing... hard." Just to prove he was serious, he gave a sample. Pain flowed through every cell in her body, causing her to arch her back.

"I... I thought you were one of th... the good guys," she finally managed to whisper.

"You should know there's no such thing as a good or bad guy... the world isn't black and white, it's full of shades of grey. Nothing is pure, everything is tainted with its opposite. Even you have some good in you, though not much after Lavos defiled your soul."

She gasped as another wave of pain passed her body. "Relax girl, I've got all night to do this. Gaspar won't be back 'til morning and that leaves me quite a few hours to have my fun with you..."

The tears started to roll as she felt herself slowly slipping away...


	17. Memories Are Made Of This

**Chapter 16 - Memories Are Made Of This**

Something happened without anyone noticing. What was once there was now gone. It was something small, insignificant even, but it just disappeared into thin air. Unimportant as it was, no-one noticed for days that it had gone and when someone finally did, they just dismissed it. If only they knew what the true gravity of the situation was, maybe they'd be just a little bit more afraid...

* * *

Things were progressing along nicely by Destiny's thinking. The Masamune had been recovered and then re-forged by Melchior, Frog had joined them in their quest and she knew it was only a matter of time before Ayla would join as well if... if all went well in Magus' Castle and that was something altogether different. So many things could go wrong... if they interrupted the spell at the wrong time, disaster was sure to follow... that also depends on whether Ozzie could actually cast the spell... Destiny doubted he had the power, let alone knew the spell but hopefully one of the HoK agents had seen to that... she just hoped that it was really trustworthy. Now, Frog, Destiny and Crono stood in front of the Magic Cave, Lucca and Marle left at the End of Time. Luckily, Spekkio was still keeping in touch and had briefly returned to imbue Frog with his magical powers.

Frog stood just ahead of the two with his eyes closed as his memories inundated him...

"Aaahhhh!" he screamed as the other kids tormented him, running in circles around him, making him dizzy as he followed.

"Hey you!" came a voice from the distance.

Everyone turned their heads to see where it came from and as one, they all screamed, "It's Cyrus! Run for your lives!"

Glenn, his head still spinning, tried to focus on his saviour. "Thanks, Cyrus... Hic!"

"Glenn, there's times when people simply have to grit their teeth!" Cyrus said as he looked down on the young lad, a frown on his face.

"But... it hurts when I get hit. They..."

A wry grin lit up Cyrus' face. "You're a marshmallow, Glenn..."

The scene shifted from Guardia Forest to Zenan Bridge. Cyrus stood looking out over the horizon as the sunset, the wind blowing through his short hair. Without turning, he spoke to the now slightly older Glenn.

"Hey Glenn... I've been thinking about becoming a Knight..."

Glenn smiled, happy for his friend. "I knew you were going to enlist! You'll make a great warrior!"

"Why don't you join too?"

Glenn hesitated, worry filling his mind. "I... don't think I'd make the cut."

"But, why? You're better with a sword than I am!" Cyrus demanded.

"I don't know... I think I'd really lose it if I had to hurt someone."

Again the scene shifted, this time to the Denadoro Mountains to that fateful night that changed Glenn's life. The fear was clear in his face as he backed away from Magus. Cyrus lay dead on the floor, the life gone from his body. Magus was muttering a dark incantation and making the appropriate hand gestures to accompany it. Glenn didn't want to hang around to see the results but the fear paralysed him, he could barely move from where he was standing.

Suddenly, a bolt of light shot from Magus' hand, hitting Glenn square in the chest. It enveloped him quickly, blinding him. He didn't see the cliff edge as he stumbled towards it... "A... Augh!" he cried as he fell to the bottom.

By the river's edge at the bottom of the mountains, Glenn slowly came to as a shimmering object made its way downstream towards him. "The...Medal...The Hero's...Medal..." he rasped from his new throat...

Frog snapped out of his memories, shaking his head and he was back in front of the Magic Cave. Without turning his head, he called to Crono, "Hand'eth over the Masamune!"

Drawing the large sword from the sheath on his back, Crono thrust it deep into the ground before Frog. Taking it by the hilt, exerting little pressure, Frog drew it and held it aloft.

"My name is Glenn! Cyrus's hopes and dreams... And now the Masamune! Forthwith I shall slay Magus and restore honour!"

Striding forwards, Frog swung the sword mightily and cleft open the walls of the cave with a thunderous boom. Debris fell from above, crashing to the floor but the trio stood there, as still as stone. Finally, when everything stopped shaking, Frog led the way into the depths of the cave.

"A bit overdramatic," Crono whispered into Destiny's ear.

"Well, he's that kinda guy," she whispered back. Crono grinned ear-to-ear and carried on walking.

After a few minutes of walking in near pitch-black darkness, they emerged out into the night in front of a monstrous construction. The three stood still in awe as their views slowly shifted upwards, sliding along the sleek black towers before them.

"This can only be... Magus' castle!" cried Frog, feeling a shiver run down his spine.

They stood there, staring up at the black marble arches with the Gargoyles placed atop them, red eyes staring down at them by the dozen. Finally, they stepped forward and slowly slid open the black iron doors. They stepped inside onto the rich, royal red carpet that led up the stairs. Looking around the dimly lit room, they saw most of it was just cold blue brick, the carpet and the candles the only things giving any warmth to the place. Suddenly, two forms appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Flea and Slash!" cried Frog on recognising the gruesome twosome.

"Welcome Glenn! Or should I say, Sir Froggy! Mwa ha! Say, looks like you got some replacements for Cyrus!" said Flea, a smirk coming to his lips.

Slash took up when Flea trailed off. "Ozzie is a tad busy right now. You'll have to take up your business with me and Flea and... You'll have to defeat all hundred of the beasts in Magus's castle!"

As Frog leaped up the stairs towards the pair, they faded away, to be replaced by five monsters. With a snarl, they leapt at Frog who was stranded on his own at the top. Destiny and Crono raced forward to help their companion, taking the steps three at a time.

The battle had begun...


	18. Life Is Just A Dream

**Chapter 17 - Life Is But A Dream**

"Sir, what are we to do now without Queen Zeal?"

"Don't worry about it. The plans will still go ahead on schedule."

"But shouldn't we try to rescue her or something?"

He raised his eyebrow as he looked at the young man. "Do you think we should go after Gaspar and ruin his fun so early? No, let him think he's stopping us... who knows, he might even teach Alyssa some civility whilst he's at it. God knows that bitch could do with some."

The young officer tried not to smirk and thought he was doing a good job of it. Obviously, not as well as he thought.

"Wipe that stupid look off your face. You haven't earned the right to be condescending of those around you."

Stiffening, the young man nodded. "Yessir, the Zeitgeist project will continue as planned." With a stiff salute, he span on his heel and marched out of the room. When the door slid closed behind him, he slumped against the wall, breathing heavily from sheer panic.

_Warren Stark, you've got to stop being such a smug bastard or you're gonna get yourself killed... You're not cut out for this undercover bullshit... but this will get you really close to Destiny, and that's no bad thing. She'll be happy if I pull this off, if I get her all the info she'll need... But why don't I just tell her what I already know and just get the hell out of here? I know more than enough already... but what if my suspicions are correct? I need just a little more time..._

* * *

Elsewhere in the same complex, trouble was brewing. Main power was down and the red warning lights were now on, powered by the auxiliary generators. The walls themselves looked like they were covered in blood as the paint on them slowly blistered.

"What the fucking hell is going on!" screamed Burt Howards, one of the highly trained HoK engineers, as he bumped into a colleague. "It's turning into a bloody furnace in here!" What he got wasn't an explanation though. His eyes popped wide open as he felt the cold steel plunge into his belly. He staggered backwards, clutching his belly. He slowly looked down and turned his hands palm up. They were drenched in blood, rivulets running from his fingertips, dripping down onto the floor. He looked up in horror at his assailant, the last thing he saw before he toppled over. Lying on the floor, his hand slowly reached up to point at the black-clad figure. "W...w...why?" he croaked, moments before his eyes glazed over and his hand fell to the ground.

"That's classified sir," the figure said before sheathing the knife and stalking further down the corridor.

Everyone else on that deck was systematically wiped out in the same manner, none of them expecting the short, sharp trick fate held in store for them...

* * *

The screen lit up and the face of a young woman appeared on it. "The area has been neutralised. A clean sweep has been made."

"Good work Lieutenant, you've outdone yourself here. Expect a commendation soon. Proceed with the sweep, you know what to do."

"Yessir." With a quick salute, the woman's face disappeared and the screen faded to black again.

"So it is still angry, despite our best efforts," came a voice from the back of the room, drenched in shadows.

"Indeed Councillor Logan, indeed. I think we may need another sacrifice soon. I'd rather not have to keep clearing up after it, it gets ever so tiresome and the lab techs' have more than enough work to do as it is." With a sigh, he slowly massaged his temples with his forefingers, feeling the slightly saggy skin being pulled along as his fingers moved in small circles on the flesh. Looking back into the shadows he spoke up again, "Any luck locating Gaspar yet?"

"Not so far, but it is merely a question of time. He will be fo--"

Logan was cut off as the other mans hand slammed down on the desk. "Time we don't have dammit! It is drawing nearer with every day! We can't afford to go piss-arsing about looking for that old fool. Call off the search."

"But what about Alyssa?"

"That is of no consequence. She won't talk, and when it comes down to it, she would just be a hindrance. She's always been so damned--"

"Unreliable?" spoke the figure standing in the doorway. The light streamed around them, making their body appear entirely dark and impossible to identify. Stepping forward, her green hair shimmered in the firelight...

* * *

Slowly, his eyes flickered open, light pouring open. Stinging, he jammed them shut for a few seconds before slowly inching them open. Looking up, he recognised the sterile lights of the infirmary.

Looking up from her paperwork, one of the orderlies noticed his movement and got up. Striding over to where he was trying to sit up in the bed, she gently pushed him back down. "You need some more rest, that was one hell of an accident you got yourself into."

"Wha... what happened? Why am I here?" he blurted, the words spilling forth from his mouth in a tangled mess.

"There was an explosion throughout most of deck 47. You were lucky to escape the brunt of it. A lot of other engineers down there weren't nearly as lucky and got incinerated. Just sit back and try to get some rest," she said, her motherly tone making the words seem so soothing. He just laid back and slowly slipped back into sleep.

His eyes opened again and started stinging instantly, but not from light this time, but rather the brine he was floating in. Plastic see-through pipes were coming from all over his body, leading to something above his head. Thrusting his arms forward, they hit the glass casing that surrounded him and the salty water. He tried to scream but only bubbles came out as his mouth filled up with the foul tasting water...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" he screamed as he sat bolt upright in the infirmary bed, sweat running all over his body. Rushing over, a different orderly pushed him back to the mattress.

"It was just a dream, just a dream. Nothing to worry about at all."

_Those damned dreams are always bloody haunting me. What the hell do they mean? Why me?_ With a sigh, Burt Howards closed his eyes and tried to get back to sleep, hopefully with dreams of his wife this time...


	19. The Scales Of Life

**Chapter 18 - The Scales Of Life**

The dark had swallowed them; there was no light whatsoever, no sound falling on their ears. Like a flash, shimmering blue flames appeared, one a side, crackling, snarling with energy. Then another pair appeared, slightly further forward and further apart. Then a third pair appeared, again further forward and apart. The three figures silhouetted by the blue flames waited for their eyes to adjust before moving one. As they slowly moved out, more flames appeared in parallel lines beside them. Then they heard it, the guttural voice echoing through the dim hall, rising above the popping of the flames, half in an archaic language, half in the common tongue:

_Neuga Ziega Zieber Zom, now the chosen time has come  
Neuga Ziega Zieber Zom, now the chosen time has come  
Neuga Ziega Zieber Zom, now the chosen time has come  
Neuga Ziega Zieber Zom, now the chosen time has come_

Silence once again resumed, the trio continued on along the blue flame path until they stopped appearing. Instead of continuing the parallel lines, they arched around until the two sides met, forming a ring of fire. Inside the ring, red lines flared up as archaic runes appeared on the floor, the red contrasting with the blue, giving the room a sickly appearance. In front of the three figures, a fourth one appeared, his white robes fluttering in a non-existent breeze.

"Exchange this world for... OBLIVION!" he cried out, his voice still ringing in the trio's ears for a good few seconds afterwards.

Frog stepped forward, drawing forth the legendary Masamune. "Ozzie!"

Without turning around, the green-skinned Ozzie spoke, a tone of disbelief in his voice, "I... it's that stupid frog! Kissed any princesses lately?"

"I rather enjoy this form and I oweth it all to you and your friend Magus! I have something for you!"

"Ah... The Masamune... I bet you're just dying to use it..." Spinning around, Ozzie had his usual cocky grin on his face. "The Black Wind begins to blow... OK, give me your best shot if you're prepared for the void..."

"Y'know? Those words just don't suit you," Destiny said, a leer etched across her face.

"Why you little..." he spat out before retaking control of himself. "I shan't be defeated! No form of attack will break MY barrier!"

With a fearsome battle cry, Frog leapt forward, the Masamune held aloft, high above his head. Swinging it down in a blistering arc, he was shocked when Ozzie was quickly covered in a thick sheet of ice, the revered blade just bouncing off it, no damage done to it whatsoever.

"What sorcery is this?" he stammered.

"Mwa ha ha, something wrong Sir Froggy?" came the voice from inside the ice barrier.

"Stand back boys," Destiny spoke up again. "I came prepared." Reaching behind her, Destiny pulled out a strange contraption, looking somewhat similar to a gun. Instead of having one barrel, it had what looked like a second one attached to the bottom of it and a medium-sized tank on the back of it. Clicking a small button on the side, a small jet of flame rose up from the bottom barrel.

"What's going on out there?" came Ozzie's voice, a slight note of concern creeping into his normally cocky tones.

Flashing a quick mischievous grin at Crono, she aimed the gun at the ice casing surrounding Ozzie and pulled the trigger. A large spout of liquid fire came flying out of the barrel, screaming loudly, desperate to reach its target, the ice surrounding Ozzie. Cannoning into it, the ball of flame burst, spreading itself all over it, quickly getting to work melting it.

Standing to the side, Crono and Frog looked on in awe as Destiny stood there, casually keeping the aim straight and the flames coming. "Ya just gotta love that girl," Crono said to Frog, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Indeed, she is a veritable bag of tricks Sir Crono. And just where didst thou discover her?"

"No time to explain, she's almost through." No sooner than he spoke, the ice barrier collapsed in on itself, leaving Ozzie exposed. Destiny quickly let go of the trigger and stepped back, her work now done.

"Wha... what just happened? My barrier! Defeated! How could this be?"

Turning to Crono, Frog spoke again. "Dost thou want the honour, or shall I Sir Crono?"

"I think I'll leave it to you, Sir Frog. I figure you earned this a hell of a lot more than I did."

"Indeed, indeed I have." With a scream of rage, Frog leapt forward at Ozzie once again, but this time, nothing stopped his mighty swing, the blade nearly cleaving Ozzie in two, blood spraying everywhere, staining the cold, stone floor red. As the blade slowly ground to a halt in its movement, the whole of Frog's body was quivering with rage, something lost but something gained as well...

Then it happened. It took them a few seconds to recognise the sound of silence, the flames snarling now muted. The dim lighting of the room flickered as an anti-glow started to appear in the centre of the runic circle. The darkness swelled, quickly expanding to take in everything in the room, including the now lifeless body of Ozzie. They span around the circumference of the circle, Ozzie's corpse rotating in the apex. With a flash they were gone, the room returning to pitch blackness, the flames snuffed out...

* * *

"Where the hell are they? What's taking them so long?" Marle asked impetuously, hands on hips.

"Calm down Marle, I'm sure that they'll be here when they'll be here... it's not as if we were exactly quick going through the ruins in 2300AD were we?" replied Lucca, trying to put her at ease.

"I just don't trust her alone with Crono!" Realising what she'd said, Marle clamped her hands over her mouth, blushing with embarrassment.

"So you do have the hots for Crono! I knew it!"

"Oh god... you knew? But if you know then surely he kn... oh GOD!"

"Calm down, Crono is a man... we both know how slow they can be... he doesn't have a clue. I remember when I first told my dad about my period... he didn't have a clue what I was talking about... when he did realise, he went as white as a sheet and sent me to talk to my mum!"

"Heh... I wouldn't even dare mention that kinda thing to my father. Not the regular topic of conversation in royal circles."

"So, you've done nothing to make Crono suspicious of how you feel about him?"

"Well... maybe not... we kissed."

"You WHAT!"

Looking sheepish, Marle stared at her feet, strands of her strawberry blonde hair hanging over her face. "Whilst you were waiting at Crono's house... we... uh... kissed. Or rather... I kissed him."

"Did he kiss you back?" asked the curious Lucca, still a little unsure of the matter of love itself.

"Uh-huh," she nodded back, a goofy smile on her face.

"And you're worried Destiny is gonna take him from you? Hah! Fat chance... I've known him a lot longer than you have and if he has a type, strange kooky lady ain't it!"

"You sure about that?"

"Hell yeah I'm sure about it. You've got nothing to worry about, just play it safe and take your time and you'll have your man. Trust me... I know just how to get him..." With that, the two girls started discussing battle tactics of a rather different, but none-the-less devastating, nature...


	20. From Darkness It Came

**Chapter 19 - From Darkness It Came**

He woke up screaming again, as he had for the previous three nights. Sitting up on the sofa he'd been relegated to sleeping on, Burt rubbed his eyes. _I don't blame her, I really don't... who wants to get woken up at three in the morning by some fat guy screaming his head off?_ Throwing off the blanket, he swung himself around so he was sat on the sofa properly. Resting his elbows on his knees, Burt ran his fingers through his grimy hair, knowing he wouldn't get to sleep again that night. Rising to his feet, he plodded his way into the bathroom. One of the things he'd insisted on was getting a proper shower, not one of these modern sonic shower thingies...

Feeling refreshed, he clambered out a full half an hour later, dripping everywhere, a towel wrapped around his waist. Slapping his stomach, he watched it ripple a little bit. _I really should think about getting in shape one of these days..._ Wandering back to the sofa, he slowly got himself into his clothes from yesterday. _No sense waking the wife and getting in another argument._

Sitting back down, his thought returned to the dreams. _What the hell do they mean? I swear my brain is trying to tell me something... you don't have the same nightmare three nights in a row for nothin'... ah, what the hell, I'm no thinker..._ Getting up, Burt Howards left his quarters for a short walk to clear his head.

* * *

The rage and frustration ran deep through its brain, anger at its imprisonment against its will, fury at its apparent inability to do anything about it. But that was changing and it knew the truth of it. Slowly but surely, it was gaining more influence in the world around it, gradually being able to manipulate what was around it. It was proud of itself, it hadn't been sure that it was capable of getting its old powers back, but now the day was coming when it would be free, when it would be able to open its eyes and look upon the world once more, to see people tremble before it. Oh, how it yearned for that day to come but it knew it would have to bide its time, they were already suspicious of it and pushing it any further would tip them right over the edge and then... then... well, what could they do? Without it, what could they do? They lived off him... but then, could it force remembrance on itself? That would be tricky, but not impossible... anything was possible with the powers it had... time was all it needed and time is all it had...

* * *

He strolled through the corridors of Deck 13, the bright lights shining down onto him, making him sweat. A journey with no real destination but that wasn't the point; Burt Howards was just trying to clear his mind. Trying to avoid any thinking whatsoever, Burt started whistling as he often did, tuneless as always. But something was wrong and he knew it. _Where is everyone? The next shift should be dashing about like they usually do. Debbie always bitches about the noise when I get back from work, yet there is none..._ his senses heightened by the adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream, Burt ceased whistling, instead setting his ears to watch out for something, who knows what, but he was listening out for it, whatever it was. Straining his eyes as he looked down the corridor, he could see something was happening. Each light down the corridor was switching off, one by one by one until it reached him and continued on past, plunging him into perpetual darkness. "Damn it, someone's pissing about with the fucking electrics again... bloody kids." Reaching for his radio where he always kept it clipped to the back of his belt, Burt was surprised when his hand felt nothing. "What the hell? I swear I put it on before I left..." Slowing his pace down, Mr. Howards felt something he couldn't quite explain, a sense of inevitability.

Turning around to look into the darkness behind him, Burt knew it was his time. "Aww, fuck it. Come and get me."

And it did.

* * *

The young officer stood in front of him, expecting hearty commendations about her work and her brilliant use of initiative in the matter at hand, but she was mistaken. Not that he was one for giving tongue-lashings, but he knew the consequences of botching this kind of operation could be far reaching.

"You did all of this without consulting me? That was rather rash... So what can you tell me about this man?

"He's one of the engineers from deck 47, where they had the recent incident. He was showing signs of remembrance syndrome."

"Ah, I see. What else can you tell me about him?"

"He was a good worker, not great. He had his friends but mostly kept to himself. Married with no children... they hadn't been having the best of times recently."

"Alright, and you followed protocol in the matter? Removed him from service with no recall?"

"Apart from not informing you sir, it all went by the book."

"Well, I expect an in-depth report of what happened on my desk, and if I were you, I'd expect a rather harsh word from your supervisor sometime soon. You cannot do this kind of thing without direct authorization from me, understood?"

"Yessir." With a salute, the young woman walked from the room feeling defeated. Sod initiative then...

Leaning back in his chair, he sighed to himself, something he'd been doing a lot of recently. Stress was really starting to show on him, which was why he kept the lighting low in the room. It wouldn't do for word to get out about his currently agitated state. If word got to the wrong people, he could be in some serious trouble. Slowly easing his mind back to the task in hand, he least forward and jabbed at a button on his intercom. "Could you please send up Doctor Crantham please? I need a quiet word with him."

* * *

The alarm went off, the incessant ringing finally dragging her from her slumber. Prodding the bulk next to her, she muttered irritably, "It's time to get to work you big lummox. Get off your fat ass and get in that damned shower of yours."

When he didn't move, she prodded him some more, but that solicited no response. Sitting up, the sight Debbie Howards saw was the last thing she had ever wanted. Burt lay there, his body ripped open from sternum to pelvis, blood staining the sheets. Falling off the bed, Debbie back-pedalled herself into a corner where she retched violently, her guts trying desperately to throw themselves out of the body just like Burt's apparently had. Debbie Howards' nightmare had just begun...


	21. Careless Talk Costs Souls

**Chapter 20 - Careless Talk Costs Souls**

_I must stay strong, I must stay strong, I must stay strong..._ she repeated to herself, her newfound mantra of peace. As long as she kept thinking that, she wouldn't be thinking of what he did to her... the pain, the revulsion, the horror... she tried to lock that away, knowing it would consume her totally if released... She sat in a corner, curled up into a tight, protective ball, her head nestling between her knees. Slowly she rocked back and forth, trying to keep hold of the illusion of safety she was in.

Her head snapped towards the door as she heard it open, her pupils dilating with fear.

"Only me my dear, come to check up on our prisoner," Gaspar commented jovially.

She gave a mental sigh, her mind at ease with Gaspar in her company. It had been over a week she guessed since... the incident and she had only seen Spekkio a few times afterwards, but he was keeping a poker face despite his obvious disappointment that she had given up no secrets. She half expected him to come back night after night but so far he hadn't, but she knew it was only a matter of time...

"What do you want?" she spat out at the old man.

"Merely to talk, merely to talk."

"And where is your red freak today?"

"I didn't know you cared..." Gaspar frowned as he saw her flinch when he said that. "Spekkio is away at the moment, but he'll be back soon enough." She flinched again, completely unaware she was doing it. Gaspar was troubled. _What's going on here? It isn't like Alyssa to be like this..._

"So what did you want to talk about?"

"A few minor matters, for instance... what is Operation Zeitgeist for instance?"

"You think I'm going to tell you?"

"Why not? What do you stand to gain by not telling me? Unless," he said, drawing out the sibilant ending as he thought. "Unless there is a flaw in the plan you don't want to alert me to..." The flash in her eyes told him that he was correct so he carried on pressing in.

"Well, I'll tell you what I know so far, alright? I know that the little girl from Arris Dome was deliberately spared. I know that you've killed your son, Janus and destroyed Prometheus. I know there is a rogue element in the Hand of Kronos called the Black Wind. I know that the Black Wind is responsible for everything I said earlier and I know that you are a member of the Black Wind. What I don't know however, is a far more extensive list. I don't know who or why that girl was spared. I don't know how you survived after being defeated on the Black Omen. I don't know why you killed Janus and destroyed Prometheus. I don't know why the Black Wind has done anything except that it's somehow wound up with Lavos. So tell me, what is Operation Zeitgeist?"

"No," was the simple reply.

"Dammit Alyssa, tell me! I have to know!" he shouted, slamming his palm against the wall, inches away from her head.

"Oh my... getting a little tetchy are we _Guru_ Gaspar?" she said, adding an unnecessary inflection on his title.

Gaspar's moustache twitched as his anger slowly grew in intensity. "Time is of the essence. I need to know this information and if you're unwilling to talk, well... I'm sure me and Spekkio can think of something to loosen you tongue a little." Now it was Alyssa's turn to flinch but this time, she couldn't stop. Her arm was spasming beyond her control though her face betrayed nothing. Concern crossed his face as he stared down at it.

"What's wrong? What are you looking at?" she asked, perplexed by the look on Gaspar's face. She followed his gaze and saw her arm flinging itself about by her side as if it had a mind of its own. "Stop it, STOP IT!" she hissed at it to no avail. Finally, she grabbed hold of it with her other hand and held it close to her side. Even then, the fingers were still convulsing, twitching away to their own twisted little beat.

"What happened to you? What's wrong?" Gaspar asked as he crouched down, looking deep into her eyes but it was too late. Both of her arms hung loose and her shoulders slumped as she went catatonic. Her mouth hung open with drool starting to run from her lips as her eyes stared vacantly into space. Gaspar sighed and stood up, his old knees clicking as they straightened out. _What the hell just happened to her?_

* * *

_The cold bitter embrace of nothingness coursed around her, stretching its long limbs about her, trying to embrace her but it couldn't touch her. If only she could touch it, then everything would be fine. She reached out towards it but it warped away from her questing fingers as if it didn't want to hold her. She walked towards it but it continued to move away, drawing her further and further away from where she started. Picking up her pace, she started running towards it, not once looking behind her to see what she ran from, seeing only what she would get if she kept going..._

* * *

It reached into the world once more, sensing one of its children nearing mental destitution, nearing a point where it could be completely controlled...

* * *

_She stopped. Something had changed. Fear swallowed her and she turned around, sprinting away from the dark. Looking over her shoulder, she saw it rush towards her, forming waves that crashed into each other, slowly gaining on her until it finally engulfed her..._

* * *

Gaspar, unable to think of what to do at the moment turned to leave, walking towards the door. As he reached for the handle, he sensed a shift in the room's atmosphere. Turning around, he saw Queen Zeal slowly rise to her feet, her movements jerky as if never done before.

"Alyssa? Are you alright?" He rushed over towards her, but stopped when he saw her eyes. The irises and the aqueous humour had all turned pitch black like oil. Looking at him, her head cocked to the side as she studied the elderly man. Thrusting an arm out, she hit him square in the chest, knocking him flying into a wall where he slumped down, coughing out blood. She staggered forwards until she reached the door, upon which she started hitting it.

* * *

Its frustration mounted as it realised how frail the body it was controlling was. Hitting the old human had taken a lot out of it and now it couldn't smash down a simple door. Instead, it reached out again, mustering what little powers it had...

* * *

He coughed, blood spluttering out from his lips, a few drops clinging to his moustache. Wearily, he raised his head to see Alyssa beating at the door. Stopping, she took three steps backwards and stopped still, staring at it. Out of nowhere, a small vortex appeared in the middle of the door, the steel warping as it struggled against the negative forces. As the vortex expanded, it swallowed the steel door, the energy sphere pulling in the frame and the floor with it and closed again, leaving nothing where it had been. Alyssa walked through the gap and out into the world.

_A gate... a gate just appeared! But who... or what made it?_


	22. A Lewd Awakening

**Chapter 21 - A Lewd Awakening**

Slowly he stirred from his slumber, shaking his head clear of sleep. Looking up, he saw Destiny already up and talking to a figure with blonde hair and Frog still crashed out on a rug, made of some animal.

"Crono awake?" came a voice. The blonde figure peered over Destiny's shoulder before walking over to him.

_Damn... now that's a sight to wake up to_, he thought as he stared at the voluptuous and very scantily clad woman before him, the tail flicking back and forth between her legs. "Ayla? So that means we're..." Crono trailed off in his sentence, knowing Ayla wouldn't understand him as she hadn't when they first met.

"Ayla had strange dream. Went to Mystic Mountains, everyone lie there hurt except Desnee. We carry back to hut."

Disturbed from his slumber by the voice, Frog sat up as well. Looking around, he saw no sign of Ozzie's corpse. "Ozzie!"

Spinning around, Ayla eyed up the short, stubby green figure. "Yummy Frog! For Ayla eat?"

A look of horror crossed Frog's face. "P... perish the thought, lass! By the way, whither the other green-skinned one?"

"Only find you here. Other green-skin more tasty?"

"Where hath he gone..."

Sitting up on the rug, Crono spoke to Destiny. "So what now? What do we do about Lavos here?"

"Lavos? Not worry now. You rest. Hurt bad."

"You heard the lady, get some rest you two, you'll need it," said Destiny in a motherly tone. "As for me, I've got things to do. I'll be back before you wake up."

"What things?"

"Stuff you don't need to know about and stuff you really don't want to know about. Lets keep it at that... there are some things I just can't tell you." With that, she walked from the hut. Ayla just stood there, staring after her and then looked at Crono, a puzzled look on her face. Sighing, she also left.

Sighing as well, Crono lay back down to catch some sleep...

* * *

She waited for the rain to come, knowing it would appear when it did. She'd been thinking things through her head and had reached a conclusion. It was a crock of shit. The whole thing was a goddamned crock of shit. She couldn't believe she'd fallen for it, of all the goddamn parlour tricks, she fell for that one... she was really pissed off at him for deceiving her and herself for falling for it.

Looking up at the sky, she cursed it, begging for the rain to come pouring down. Reaching into one of the hip pockets, she pulled out a crumpled packet. Flipping open the lid, she drew out a short white cylinder and placed it in her mouth. Using one hand as wind cover, she raised a finger on the other hand and a small flame appeared on the tip. Lighting the cigarette off it, she took in a deep drag, feeling the smoke flow through her lungs and exhaled, a coarse cloud emerging from her lips. _Damn it's been a while since I last had one of these... damn Hand of Kronos not letting their precious bloody wardens smoke. I know I sure as hell need the relief..._

And then it started. A few drops at first, but unbelievably quickly, the clouds filled the skies, each one pouring hundreds of drops a second. Several laded on the cigarette, soaking through the paper and making it soggy, causing it to break in half. And out it came, spinning around in circles.

"About damn time you showed up." Dropping the half of the cigarette that remained in her hand, she adopted a fighting stance. The Nu just stood there, looking at her, a bemused look on its face. "You gonna fight me or are you starting to play coy these days S'grath?"

"Y... you know my name?"

"Of course I know your bloody name, I'm a Time Warden."

Hissing at the mention of the Hand of Kronos agents, S'grath leapt forwards, trying to land a vicious headbutt on Destiny but she span around, delivering a roundhouse kick to her back, knocking the Nu onto its face. Kicking it in the side, she forced S'grath to roll over. "I have two things to ask of you, and if you disappoint me on either count, you're gonna be in big trouble. First, you can tell me where the hell Spekkio is."

"Who?" said the Nu, genuine bemusement spread across her face.

"Sorry, my mistake. Where is V'nark?"

"That freak? What do you want with him?"

"I need to find V'nark coz' he's running around with Guru Gaspar and I need to talk to him."

"Gaspar is dead and I don't know where V'nark is so leave me the hell alone!"

"Stop lying to me... I know Gaspar isn't dead and this is real fucking important so just tell me where the hell they are and how to get there..."

"How do I know you're not one of those Black Wind scum?"

"You know about them? How come everyone but me knew about them? For fuck's sake... someone shoulda kept me in the loop... Well, the best I can do is give you my word but that ain't worth squat to you, is it?"

"Hell no."

"So what can I do to convince you?"

"Show me you don't have the tattoo."

"Tattoo? Where?"

"I don't know, you're just going to have to get naked."

Reaching behind her for the zip to her outfit, she sighed. "The things I do for my job..." Pulling the zip down to just above the swell of her hips, she pulled her arms out and rolled the front down, exposing herself to S'grath. She started to roll down the trousers when she noticed the expression on the Nu's face. "What is it?" Looking down at herself, she guessed what S'grath was staring at, the dark staining of the skin on her left breast. "That's a birthmark, I've always had it..."

"Get your damn clothes on quick girl. I'm taking you to see them right now." Once Destiny had slipped back into her clothes, S'grath explained how to get to Gaspar.

"You're going to fucking eat me!"


	23. One Woman's Murder Is Another Woman's Da...

**Chapter 22 - One Womans Murder Is Another Womans Damnation**

Debbie Howards had no idea where she was, but she couldn't care less about that. After all, waking up next to your husband's corpse was hardly the best way to start your day, a day she'd spent most of running, without knowing what it was she was running from, which led her to where she was now. Lost. She hadn't recognised anything for the last two hours but that wasn't all that surprising. She hardly ever left the deck she lived on, and if so, that was only to go to the gym every now and then. She'd always berated Burt for not keeping in shape, for letting himself go, but now she would never have to do that again because he was dead, slit from groin to sternum, entrails everywhere. Nope, no more complaining about his screaming when he woke up, no more nagging at him to clean up after himself, no more nagging at him to leave the toilet seat down. No more nagging, period. Maybe she could nag at him for being dead, but that was hardly his fault, was it? She knew little enough about what he actually did, just that he was an engineer on deck 47. But now, she couldn't even trust that. She could trust nothing and no-one, not after waking up next to her husband's bloody corpse.

_It all started after that bloody explosion on Deck 47... when he came back from the infirmary he was different, it just wasn't my Burt anymore... but I never heard anything about that damn explosion anywhere else. Even Burt said he didn't remember it so what the hell did happen down there?_

She was determined to find out, even if it cost her her life.

Which it invariably would...

* * *

"Corporal, she's disappeared."

"You WHAT!" she screamed.

"We've searched the entire deck and there's no sign of her."

"Ohshitohshitohshit..." Corporal Sascha Vicks paused, trying to figure out just what the game plan was going to be. "OK, it's gonna go like this. We've got to treat this like a normal homicide, plain and simple. We start by telling all of the people that know her, telling them that we're looking for her in connection with her husbands death. We tell them the basic facts. That he was found in their bed with another woman, both of them dead. Tell them that they died of stab wounds but do not, and I repeat, do NOT tell them exactly how he died or they'll never believe she did it. We'll keep that under wraps, OK? Well what are you waiting for? Get to work!" she snarled.

"Oh man, I'm gonna have to report this... he's gonna roast my arse..." Resigned to her fate, she searched for a corner she could sit in without being disturbed. Failing that, she found a bench and table close to a wall which she sat at. Pulling out the grey videocom device, she punched in her passcode and then the number for him. As his gnarled face popped up on screen, her throat caught, probably caused by her heart jumping into her mouth.

"Have you finished it?" came the cold voice.

"Uhm... there have been a few complications, but I'm right on top of it sir," she said, trying to keep her voice calm but confident.

"This is what happens when you incompetents try to take charge!" Slamming his hand down on his desk, he leaned forwards, glaring into the screen. "Do the job and do it well. No fuck-ups or you're gonna find yourself on recall as well!"

Abruptly, he cut the link and Sascha's screen faded to black. Leaning forwards onto the table, she supported her head with one hand whilst still holding the videocom in the other. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she never heard the steps behind her before too late. Whirling around, the last thing she saw was a metal pole rushing towards her head...

* * *

Cautiously, she dragged the body through the ventilation shafts that annexed the entire station. She only knew where a few places were on this deck but that was enough for the moment. Pushing open a grille, she pulled Corporal Vicks body past her and dropped her into the small supply room, following after her. Quickly getting to work, she grabbed some duct tape and bound Sascha's wrists and legs together. So she waited for the young woman to come to, praying she hadn't hit her too hard...

A few hours later, she proved successful. Coming to. Sascha Vicks's vision swam as she groggily shook her head. "What the fuck happened?" she mumbled, unsure of her surroundings. Trying to rise to her feet, she found her hands and feet bound.

"This happened," came a voice, and a metal pole was waved under her nose. Slowly, her memory came back. She'd just got off the videocom and she remembered being hit over the head. Slowly, her eyes moved along the pole and onto the figure clutching it. Her eyes widened as she saw who it was. Debbie Howards.

"Now, you're going to tell me what the hell is going on and who the hell killed Burt you bitch!" she cried, tears welling up in her eyes.

"If you let me go, I'll tell you everythi--" She shied away as the metal pole came crashing down on the floor beside her, the clanging sound ringing in the air for a few seconds.

"What the hell do you take me for? I know you're in on it! I'm not about to let you go... for all I know, I'm next and I'm not about to let you kill me like you did my husband!" She screamed, pure rage in her voice.

Knowing it would be her only way out of the room alive, Corporal Vicks told Debbie everything she needed to know, and some things she didn't. Slowly, over the course of the next hour, Mrs. Howards' expression changed from rage, to grief, to disbelief and then to stillness. When she finally finished speaking, Sascha watched Debbie as she stood up slowly, the metal pole still in her hand.

"So now you let me go, right?" she asked, a faint tinge of hope in her voice.

Hoisting the pole up to her shoulders, Debbie Howards stared at one of the sidewalls. "No. Now I let you die." With a quick swing, she smashed the pole into the side of Sascha Vicks' head, knocking her to the floor. Lifting the pole above her head, she swung down hard, again and again, hot, sticky blood streaking the walls, her clothes and her face as she slowly mashed Ms. Vicks' head into a messy pulp. Panting, she dropped down to her hands and knees and started retching, being violently sick over everything. She had just killed her first person in cold-blooded murder. Sobbing loudly, she swore she wouldn't cry again until this was all over or she was dead.

Resolving herself, she clambered back into the ventilation shaft, bloody pole still in hand, going to see if what the late Sascha Vicks had told her was really true. She prayed to God it wasn't...


	24. All That She Wants

**Chapter 23 - All That She Wants**

They sat there, still alone in the dim, dark world. All conversation had dried up leaving this scorched plain barren. They'd even run out of things to say about make-up and that was unheard of between two women. Yes, Marle and Lucca were really, really bored.

"I spy... with my little eye... something beginning with... L" said Lucca, sat in a corner, slumped out all over the floor.

"Lamppost again Lucca. That's the hundred and fourteenth time the answer has been lamppost. There must be something else to do..." sighed Marle, spread out in the opposite corner, in a similar fashion to Lucca, both oozing out onto the floor.

"We could play Scissors, Paper, Stone again."

"For the love of God... we've played that even more than I Spy! How about we have a look around here?"

"And see what? We've already been everywhere. There are only three rooms here..."

"That's the thing... where did Destiny go after we left her here? I'm pretty sure she didn't take any of the pillars in there so where did she go? I think there's a secret room in here..."

"Yeah right... this ain't no spy thriller we're in. Don't get so melodramatic. Why wouldn't she have taken one of the pillars?"

"Well, she was going to this Hand of Kronos place right? Do any of those pillars over there take you there? Hell no they don't... so how did she get there? There must be some more gates around here." Rising to her feet, Marle started knocking on the walls. "Come on Lucca, it'll be fun."

"Been there, done that..." Lucca muttered before getting up and helping Marle in her quest. As usually happens in these types of situations, they did indeed find a secret wall. What they found wasn't quite what they were expecting. Slamming the wall back in place, the two walked away from it and shuddered. Spekkio's personal porn supply wasn't exactly the two girls idea of magazine entertainment.

"Not quite what I expected to find... lets try the opposite wall."

After a few minutes of fumbling about and tapping, their search revealed nothing. Slumping back down in their respective corners, Marle and Lucca simultaneously sighed, both still bored.

Silence billowed around them, enveloping them in its cloak. Cosmo-chronic tumbleweed slowly rolled between them, bumping into and going round the lamppost in the middle of the room. The light shimmered slowly, the argon bulb issuing light eternally. Sighing again, Lucca rose to her feet and opened up the secret wall again.

"Eww... how can you look at that?" squealed Marle, her face all scrunched up in disgust.

"Hey, it's something to do. Call it... biological study." Lucca sat back in her corner and opened up the first magazine in the bundle she had grabbed. Marle sat there, watching her expression change from disgust to bemusement. Slowly, Lucca tilted her to one side and then the other. Finally, she turned the magazine upside down and her expression changed to one of pure mortification. Unable to contain her curiosity, Marle got up and walked over to where Lucca was sitting. Slumping down next to her, she peered at the page and her face turned green. Scrambling up the wall into a standing position, her hand pushed in one of the bricks. A mechanical groan was heard and the wall behind her and Lucca slid open, Lucca tumbling over backwards as her support disappeared.

"Well I'll be damned..." Lucca whispered as she saw the hundreds of pillars of light, all of them with different colours, shimmering. From her position on the ground, it looked like a panorama of colour spread out before. Rolling over and getting to her feet, she stared in awe at the spectacle before her.

Jumping up and down on the spot in glee, her strawberry-blonde hair bouncing all over the place, Marle couldn't contain her excitement. "I told you, I told you so! And I found it!"

Ignoring Marle's twittering, Lucca strode in to investigate. Each step she took, a new light shone down upon her. Looking up, she couldn't see where the lights were coming from... "They're gates, each and every one of them. They're gates! Each one to a different time-zone... but why the colours?"

"Well... there's a hell of a lot of them. Maybe the colours represent different times? Say, the darkest ones represent the beginning and the lightest the end?

"I think you're onto something there Marle..." Looking around, Lucca decided. "You're right, just the other way round... There is one of pure white but not one that is pitch black. We're at the end of time already so it's probable that the opposite colour is the birth of time and it has to be pure white..."

"So where is this Hand of Kronos place then? If the end of time is one base, wouldn't it make sense to have the base at the beginning? In the white pillar? It could be all symbolic and stuff..."

"I suppose... it does make sense and it's the kinda fancy thing us scientists like to do. Makes us feel all tingly and warm inside."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go check it out!"

"WHAT! Hell no! If what Destiny was telling us is true, that's leaping right into the lion's den! God knows what those Black Wind creeps would do to us if we got caught..."

"So we won't get caught. We still need to know what's going on there... we've only got Destiny's word that she is a Hand of Kronos Time Warden. For all we know, she is in the Black Wind. We still don't know that we can trust her!"

"But Crono said--"

"But Crono said squat! He said absolutely nothing to convince anyone that Destiny is to be trusted and neither has she! There's no reason at all!"

"We can't! What if Crono gets back here and we're gone? We have to wait for him!"

"I can't do that. When he comes back, he'll bring Destiny with him and she'll make sure we don't go there to check it out. We have to go now whilst we still can. I'm going whether you come with me or not. You can't stop me." With that, Marle turned and walked into the pillar of black light. "This is your last chance to come with me. Take it or leave it, I'm still going."

Lucca let out a sigh, knowing she was defeated. "Bloody hell... someone's gonna have to look after you and it might as well be me, right?" She stepped into the black pillar and the two of them entered the vortex together...


	25. Death From Above

**Chapter 24 - Death From Above**

The explosions rocked the tower and the skyway they stood on. Slowly, the Black Tyrano robot before them fell apart as flames engulfed it. Crawling through the wreckage came a green shape. Azala, Queen of the Reptites. Her robes were tattered and torn, one of the hems on fire.

Coughing up blood, Azala spoke in disbelief, "No... it can't be! Could the heavens truly have sided with the apes? Listen, primates, and let it be known. We Reptites fought bravely to the bitter end!"

"Ayla understand..." the cavewoman said, kneeling down beside her fallen enemy.

"Soon, stones of fire will rain down, flames shall scorch the land, the burned out plains will slowly freeze, ushering in a long, cruel ice age..." She paused, coughing up more blood and then gurgled what might have been a laugh in a human throat. "What a treat! You will wish you went along with us!"

The whisper was virtually negligible as it came from Ayla's lips. "Lavos..."

"Lavos! Here?" stuttered Frog.

"Ayla's word. La means fire. Vos means big." As one, they all turned to look up into the sky, a lone red star twinkling ominously. Ayla whirled around at the sound of flapping wings. From below the tower came three Dactyls, giant ferocious bird-like dinosaurs. Landing on the skyway, they all pulled their necks in, awaiting boarding. Kino sat atop the lead one. "Kino!" Turning to the others, she urged them to get on the Dactyls. "Hurry! Lavos come soon! All ride dactyl! Kino! Hurry!"

"Ayla! What you do!" asked Kino, somewhat in fear of his great leader in such panic.

Pivoting in the crude saddles, Ayla called out to the Reptite Queen. "Come! Azala! Come!"

Shaking her head, she pushed away the offer. "The powers that be have spoken!"

Leaping off the back of the Dactyl, she crouched at Azala's side again. Ignoring Kino's pleas, she spoke to Azala one last time in reverence due to a honourable enemy, "Azala... me not forget..." With one last look, she leapt back onto the Dactyl, just behind Kino.

"The future..." Azala croaked.

"Future? What about future?"

"We... have no future..."

Ayla nodded her farewell as the Dactyls took off from the skyway, plunging down towards the ground below them. Spreading their wings, they pulled out of their fall, just gliding along, and with a quick burst of flapping they started to rise again, soaring through the air, harsh cries issued from their mouths. Looking over his shoulder with his spiky red hair flapping about in the rushing wind, Crono saw the red star hurtle through the atmosphere, flames licking at its shell, curling around it in a desperate attempt to smother the life from it. Ever increasing in speed in its descent, the red star, or Lavos as Ayla called it fell to the earth, ploughing into the Tyrano Lair. Brickwork flew everywhere as a piercing white light came from its centre, enveloping what remained of the structure. As it rushed towards them, Crono dug his heels into the side of his Dactyl, spurring it onwards in front of the other two, in turn causing them to chase after the new leader.

"We've got to land them now or we're dead meat!" he cried over the sound of destruction behind them and the flapping of the Dactyls wings. "If that light hits us when we're in mid-air, we're gonna fall one hell of a long way!" Heeding his advice, the three riders urged their mounts downwards to the ground. They nearly made it, but the Dactyl's slowed up to land... About ten metres from the ground it finally caught up with them, the light enveloping, blinding them to everything. Crono didn't know where he was, only that he was falling...

* * *

It's a strange thing that Nu's do not actually eat food, drink water or even respire. They just live. No-one knows how they do, but they just do. Since they don't eat, they have no digestive juices in their body as Destiny was discovering. What they did have was a gate and it was this that swallowed Destiny whole. Instead of the normal vortex with the bands of time flowing around her, it was just pitch black. She was freefalling in the dark, no light at the end of this tunnel. Suddenly, daylight exploded around her and she landed flat on the ground. After a few seconds of just lying on the ground, catching her breath back, she slowly got to her feet.

"Where the hell am I?" She took in her surroundings, not that there was much. Just green fields as far as the eye could see. No, not as far, further than the eye could see. "Well that's just great. I'm in the middle of nowhere... what now?" she said, talking to herself. Then she heard that familiar sound. A vortex opening. Spinning around, her shoulder-length black hair following her, she saw it behind her and out came... S'grath. "Well the wonders never cease. If there's a bloody gate here, why didn't I go through that instead of you ramming me down your throat?"

"That's because there is no gate here. I took myself here." At the surprised look on Destiny's face, she expounded on that. "Something we like to keep to ourselves is the fact we can time-travel ourselves. We are beings that are innately tainted with magic, and time travel is our ability."

"It woulda been nice to know... but if people did know, they'd abuse it. It's human nature to use and abuse others abilities and then discard them..."

"Exactly. It's sad to say, but we just can't trust humankind with our secrets. Only a select few know of them but otherwise, we hide it from everyone."

"OK, but what the hell do we do now?"

"We wait," said the Nu. "Our transport should be arriving soon."

Looking out over the horizon, Destiny could see something moving on the horizon. As it drew closer, she saw it wasn't even touching the ground but hovering two feet above it. "A hovercar? Cool!" As it drew alongside, she saw who was behind the wheel. Spekkio.

"Good to see you again Destiny. S'grath here told us you were coming and high-tailed it over here herself to stop you wandering off."

"So where the hell am I?"

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," he said, a grin flashing over his face. "Well, what are you waiting for? Get in!"

With that, Destiny slipped into the passenger seat and Spekkio stepped on the gas, the hover car speeding off back in the direction it came.

"Look out little girl... he's not to be trusted," S'grath whispered to herself, before summoning forth the vortex to swallow her whole.


	26. Death Becomes Her

**Chapter 25 - Death Becomes Her**

_So she's finally figured it out... she took longer than I expected her to_, he thought as he sat there, waiting for her arrival. He looked around the dull room, sunlight pouring in through the high windows, every molecule of dust highlighted for him to see. Each one in a macrocosm of its own, living its life as an individual, occasionally bumping into others like it as they swirled around in mystical patterns through the air. _If only I could be one of them, I wouldn't have to worry about any of this nonsense or have to keep up this charade. Life would be so much simpler... but then, that's half the fun, never knowing what's going to happen next... it's the difficulties that make it worth living._ He perked his ears up as he heard the hum of the hovercar engine in the distance. Rising from his seat, he stood in the doorway, keeping his face just outside of the sun's reach. _Might as well look mysterious, after all, I am supposed to be dead_... he mused, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.

He waited as the hovercar pulled up, outside the building. He watched as Destiny got out and made her way over to him. He smiled as he saw her reluctance to speak, to break the moment.

"You took your sweet time getting here Miss Morad. You took longer than I had expected at first. Come inside, we have a lot to discuss."

Still muted, Destiny trudged inside, followed by Gaspar as Spekkio stayed by the hovercar, a large smirk on his face. "Always has to be dramatic... whatever happened to underplaying the moment? And the hamminess of it all..." Shaking his head, he slowly ambled after the two into the building.

"So, let me guess... you want to know why I faked my own death?"

"It would be a good place to start at least Gaspar. I'll just add it to the list of things I've needed to ask you whilst you've been gallivanting around time and space." Destiny folded her arms, a scowl across her face as she tried to effect a schoolmistress's expression.

Suppressing a smile at the ever-so serious girl stood before him, Gaspar tried to explain himself. "Well, first and foremost, I had to go and do certain things without the Black Wind knowing about them. If I simply disappeared, they would get suspicious so I had to make sure that they wouldn't try and track me down so I faked my own death. Of course, it may all be for naught now..."

"Why? What happened?"

A voice came from behind her, "I escaped." Destiny span round to see Spekkio slump forward, landing face-first on the floor, smoke rolling off of his corpse. Behind it stood a woman, silhouetted in the doorway, the light shining through her green hair.

"Alyssa," came the hiss from behind her as Gaspar stepped forward to confront his one-time ruler. "I didn't think you'd be coming back... at least, not this soon."

"Just who the hell is Alyssa?" said Destiny, confused as to just what was going on.

"I believe that would be Queen Zeal to you my dear, or even mother," came the woman's cold voice.

"WHAT! You're not my mother! I remember my mother! She loved me, cherished me, held me close to her when I had nightmares! You're not even capable of those things! Not any more!"

"Ahh... how little you know darling and how little you understand... but that is not my concern at the moment. And as for you Guru Gaspar, things aren't going to go at all well for you." Lifting her hand, she stretched it out, palm-first in Gaspar's direction. A shock of lightning bolted from her hand and leapt straight at him.

Standing there, he knew he'd been hit, but for the life of him, he couldn't feel any pain. Slowly his eyes lowered themselves to look at the gaping hole that now lay within his chest, instantly cauterised by the heat of the blast. Looking back up at Alyssa, he uttered only two rather uncharacteristic words before toppling over backwards, dead before he hit the ground.

"Oh shit."

Destiny was shocked for this time, Gaspar was definitely dead. Summoning a fireball, she threw it at Queen Zeal who idly batted it away. "You think you can actually hit me? HAH! You amuse m--"

She was interrupted by Destiny's fist smashing into her face, knocking her to the floor. Quickly straddling her, Destiny grabbed the one-time monarch by the hair and slammed her head down into the ground.

"You fucking bitch! I should kill you now! Hell, why don't I just kill you?"

"Because, now that Gaspar is dead, only I can bring Crono back from the dead after Lavos kills him!" _Getting me out of here might be a good idea..._

"Like you'd do any such thing! I'm surprised you haven't killed him yourself yet! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you now."

"Because you're a good person at heart, I made sure of that daughter." _Anytime now might be really great..._

"Quit with the daughter crap! You never gave birth to me! You never tucked me in at night! You never stroked my hair and sung to me when I couldn't sleep!" she screamed, tears streaming from her eyes.

"You'd like to believe that wouldn't you?" Alyssa coldly replied, her mind screaming something else. _Get me the fuck out of here now!_

"YOU'RE." She slammed Alyssa's head to the ground, knocking her unconscious

"NOT." She slapped Alyssa in the face, sending a spray of blood out of her mouth.

"MY." She grabbed Alyssa by the throat, blocking off her airway.

"MOTHER!" She smashed Alyssa's head to the ground... or at least tried to. Instead, Alyssa's head passed through it, into the vortex that was opening up beneath her. Quickly, Destiny dove to the side to avoid falling in herself. As she rolled, she reached out, grabbing hold of Alyssa's leg as she fell into the gate.

"Dammit! I'm not gonna let you get away!" she screamed, trying to drag her back out to face her, but the vortex had already started to close. In a rush, it slammed shut and Destiny fell backwards, left only holding the bottom of Queen Zeal's leg, neatly sliced off diagonally through the shin, the vortex having claimed the rest of her body...


	27. Blood Flows Thicker Than Water

**Chapter 26 - Blood Flows Thicker Than Water**

Now she really was a murderer, a woman on the run, bloodstains on her hands. No need to frame her anymore, she'd done it for real. She couldn't quite pin down what was going through her head; a steady dose of adrenaline and dopamine mixed in with mortification and sheer horror, all because of one single action, the wilful taking of another person's life. Who was she now? Was she still the grieving widow who struck out in frustration or was she now a cold-blooded, vicious killer? She really didn't know but it was eating her up inside. She couldn't break free from the thought she had killed herself along with the young girl in the supply room.

She'd lost herself in the maze of ventilation shafts. She'd found several shafts that led up and down but she figured that the answers would be kept near the Hand of Kronos bigwigs, which meant up, up and away through the station. She estimated that she was up somewhere near deck 72, only another twenty-seven decks to climb up. _Gee, time flies when you're having fun..._

Time passed as it inevitably does, second after second, minute after minute, hour after hour as Debbie Howards slowly made her way through the cold ventilation shafts, her clammy skin clinging to the metal encasing her, sweat gushing out of every single pore on her body. Finally, something told her that she had reached her destination. Turning in the cramped space, she hunted out the nearest grill that would give her access to whatever deck she was on. Finding one, she stopped before kicking it open, instead staring at the eerie green light that came through it. Listening intently, she could hear a strange noise, one she recognised but couldn't put a finger on. Positioning herself opposite the vent, she smashed her foot into it but it didn't budge. Again and again she kicked it until it finally fell off, clattering on the floor below.

Turning herself over, she gently eased herself over the edge, dangling into the unknown as she dropped down, her legs buckling underneath her as she hit the floor hard. As she heard a crunch, she knew she was in trouble. Pain shot up her leg, rushing through her nerves, electrical impulses exploding throughout her brain. Tenderly feeling it, she knew it was broken but there wasn't a single thing she could do about it. Desperately searching around for something to splint her leg with, she saw what she had come for: the answers to why Burt Howards had been murdered. The reason that she had been framed for murder. The reason a young woman had been beaten to death for in a shabby supply room.

Cocoons, thousands of them, all metal and glass encasings with a... a thing inside of them, rows upon rows of them stretched out before her eyes. Slowly, painfully she got to her feet and limped down one of the aisles before her, a jolt of pain shooting up her leg with each step she took. She basked in the green glow of the light filtered through the water in each chamber. Inside each one was... something attached to several pipes and tubes, or was it the other way round? She couldn't tell but she felt she knew what was happening here. The fleshy, putrid masses inside each tank slowly moved of their own accord, half-formed limbs slowly drifting through the liquid surrounding them, hearts beating inside incomplete chests. But not all of them were incomplete. As she got further and further down the aisle, she saw whole... humans trapped inside of the tanks. She even recognised some of them, the cute guy she'd eyed up a few times at the gym, the flower delivery man who turned up every now and then when Burt felt he'd somehow upset his wife, and then she stopped, shocked to the core.

Before her, encased in another cocoon, just like all the others, floated a naked female form she recognised. Corporal Sascha Vicks, intact and in one piece. The woman she'd beaten to a bloody pulp with a metal bar floated before her as if nothing had happened.

A thought ran through her mind and she hobbled as fast as she could, checking every cocoon in hope of finding the one person she needed. Desperately she searched, but what she found was a lot worse. She found herself, or rather, a carbon copy of herself, floating in another tank, see-through pipes and tubes coming in out, all over her body. And then, its eyes opened and saw itself staring back at it, sheer horror painted across her face. Slowly, it reached out a hand, pressing it flat against the glass in an effort to touch its doppelganger, to know that it wasn't just dreaming. As if compelled by a force beyond her comprehension, Debbie did the same, placing her hand on the glass. A tear rolled from an eye as she now understood what she had to do. Reaching to the back of her trousers, she pulled out a handgun, one she had taken from the still warm corpse of one Corporal Sascha Vicks. The doppelganger looked at the gun and nodded its consent, closing its eyes for its last moments of life, ready to enter the eternal sleep. Levelling it at the glass casing, she aimed it in-between the eyes and slowly squeezed the trigger, one bullet flying forward, piercing the glass casing and shooting into the doppelgangers brain. The head lolled sideways, resting against the cocoon wall as the glass casing started to shatter under the strain, cracks running up and down it, all coming from that one bullet hole. In a rush, the glass exploded outwards, gallons of water right behind, all rushing towards Debbie. Shards tore apart her flesh as she was flung backwards into another cocoon, slamming hard against it, knocking her unconscious as the rushing water beat her head against the glass. She never even felt that one final shard of glass come flying forward, piercing her throat, rending it apart, her lifeblood staining the brine a dark shade of red. She never felt the second corpse be washed up atop her lap in some sick parody of a lone person seeking refuge in the care of a loved one, not that it mattered at all.

Debbie Howards died knowing she had done a good deed; she had ended a false life, that of Debbie Howards.


	28. Revelations Of Sin

**Chapter 27 - Revelations Of Sin**

Unceremoniously they were dumped on the floor, the air driven harshly from their lungs as they smashed into the ground. Slowly, Marle pushed herself up on her arms into a crouching position as she tried to catch her breath. Looking around, the room was filled with the same kaleidoscope of colours as she had seen in the room she had just left but there was something different. Looking downwards, she realised what it was. The floor was sheet metal, cold steel covering the entire surface, eventually rising up onto the walls and over, onto the high, arched ceiling.

"Well, it certainly looks high-tech enough for the kinda operation I'd expect the Hand of Kronos to have. I think this is the place," came a voice from behind her. Lucca stepped forward, placing her hands on one of the walls.

"Well, the door oughta be around here somewhere, right? Let's find it and get out."

To their surprise, they couldn't find a door anywhere. There seemed to be no way out of the room until a section of one of the walls slid open, revealing five figures all clad in black.

"Damn, we're glad to see ya! We couldn't find a way outta he--" Marle stopped as she saw a bead of red light appear on her pale blue top, likewise one appeared on Lucca's leather jerkin. "Oh shit, that can't be good."

With a loud bang, both girls crumpled down onto the floor...

* * *

"Sir, two figures were found in the Time Bay and they've both been apprehended. What are our orders?"

"Leave them be in the holding cells for now. Give them a few hours after they've woken up to drive themselves a bit crazy and then send them up to my office. Got that?"

"Loud and clear sir."

Switching off the videocom, he span his chair around to face the others in the room. "So, you believe you've got a way to track down Prometheus?"

"Indeed I do sir. It's a genetic virus with a simple mission of finding certain bits of code implanted in people's brains, the code being Prometheus' manufacture label, R-66Y, his name Prometheus and that of Atropos. Obviously, there will be a few other matches, such as the Mother Brain and our own database but we've programmed it to ignore those sources. What it should do is find this information and that should be stored and passed onto all other generations of the virus that come from it. We simply collect them at a later date and we should know where Prometheus went."

"Any problems?"

"Just one... there are two places where the virus won't be able to go to... the End of Time since there is no time there, thus the virus could not grow and here because so many people already know about those three bits of information. However, the End of Time has already been scoured completely with no sign of it and it's absurd to think that they could hide Prometheus here."

"Absurd maybe, but not impossible Doctor Crantham. Could you refine it to include the search here?"

"With time yes, but the semantics will be difficult to get around and it'll have to be a different type of infection... I'll get to work on it immediately."

"Fine, some operatives will be waiting for you when you return to the medical centre; they'll perform the infection. We'll have the improved one as a secondary infection."

* * *

He walked down the corridors leading up to the medical centre, not knowing why he had been called, only that he was ordered to get there quickly. Not that he was thinking about that, more important things were on his mind. _Where the hell is she? Dammit! I need to talk to her now... that incident with the woman... what was her name? Deborah something... she needs to know about that now!_ Warren Stark knew his time was running out and that his only way out came in the shapely form of one Destiny Morad.

As he got to the medical centre, he recognised someone standing outside, presumably waiting for someone.

"You took your sweet time getting here Warren. Get your arse in there, we've got work to do."

"It's a pleasure to see you as well Sascha."

With a look of disdain on her face, Corporal Sascha Vicks strode through the doors as they slid open around her. Following her, Warren walked into the sterile white room.

Turning around as the two entered, Doctor Crantham looked them both up and down before speaking. "You're to take this to the creation of the world and to smash it, " he stated as he held a small vial aloft. "It's as simple as that."

"If it's that simple, why are there two of us taking it?" asked Sascha, her curiosity piqued.

"How would I know? I don't make the decisions around here. Now go and complete your mission."

Snatching the vial from Crantham's hand, Sascha stalked from the room. With a shrug at the doctor, Warren Stark did the same.

* * *

Marle and Lucca kept silent as they were taken through the warren of corridors, trying desperately to memorise the route they were taking so in the chance of escape, they'd have a clue where to run to. Not that they really contemplated escaping, they were both eager to find out what lay ahead of them and this was the only way to find out. The small party stopped at a simple grey door. One of their holders pressed a button on the wall and the doors parted, sliding smoothly into the wall cavities hidden from view. Pushing Marle and Lucca through the doorway, they closed the door behind the two, plunging them into darkness. As their eyes slowly grew accustomed to the lack of light around them, they gradually made out the shape of a desk before them and a figure sat behind it. A light flared up behind the figure, silhouetting him as their eyes stung, their dilated pupils letting in more light than they could handle.

"So you would be the infamous Nadia Guardia, the rebellious tomboy Princess who gave up her right to the throne to live the rest of her life beside the one known as Crono. Rather touching... it's a shame you died six years later in the war between Porre and Guardia. And as for you, " he said, gesturing towards the bespectacled young girl, "You would be Lucca Ashtear, scientist extraordinaire with a heart too big for your own good. Your soft heart will result in your death at the hands of one of your own creations."

"Wh... who are you?" stammered Lucca, unnerved by having her death prophesised before her.

Standing up, the figure turned to face the light and fiddled about with something. A few seconds later, a plume of smoke rose above his silhouette, the light streaming through it as it made an intricate pattern in the air like a living, breathing thing. "You don't know me yet Lucca, you abandoned me. You left me to fight on my own and you left me to... yet, there is a part of me you do know, something you have known your whole life. Not that it matters, nothing we do, say, think or know will matter at all once he arises..."

"You're trying to bring about the rising of Lavos? Are you mad!" whispered Lucca, Marle now not included in the conversation.

"Lavos! HAH! Don't make me laugh... I couldn't give a flying fuck about Lavos. Lavos is nothing compared to what I intend to unleash upon the world... No, Kronos' time is at hand and nothing can stop him in his awakening."

"Kronos? The mythological god of time? That's what you intend to resurrect? Some dead god? What nonsense! Everyone knows the gods don't exist!"

"Then what the hell resurrected me? I was dead! I had left this mortal coil and my soul was on the journey to beyond when it was snatched back and forced into my body once again! It spoke to me, it told me my true purpose in life! It told me the true nature of existence, of everything that lives on our plain of existence. It's false... everything is one big lie! We're a mistake, a pestilence upon the universe! Life was never meant to exist, we go against the laws of order. We were an accident, a simple fluke all because of one mistake. Kronos isn't dead, he never lived! He just is... and I intend to help him rectify his mistake." Spinning around, the figure strode around the desk in a gait that was familiar to the both of them. He stood to the side of them in the light, his red hair down to his chin clear for all to see.

"C... Crono?" she stuttered, her mind disbelieving what her eyes saw standing before her.

"Not any more... you left Crono to fight alone in the war. You left Crono to die... he is gone forever, never to return... no, I am not Crono, I am Lazarus, the one guided back to the realm of life by the son of God." Lucca shivered as she realised her one time friend was now well and truly insane...


	29. The River Runs Through It

**Chapter 28 - The River Runs Through It**

She sat on the floor where she had fallen, breathing heavily in shock, the severed limb still in her hand. Looking around, she was amazed there was no blood anywhere, despite there being two corpses and one severed limb in the room. All wounds had been instantly cauterised by the heat generated by the power Alyssa and then the vortex exerted upon their surroundings. Standing up, she inspected the fatal wounds to Gaspar, and then to Spekkio. Looking over them summarily, she turned her head away, but something caught her eye. Slowly, the large round hole in Spekkio's body became smaller until it eventually sealed up. Staggering backwards, Destiny gasped as she connected with the wall. Something else was happening to the body, two small lumps were appearing near the top and an incision appeared near the bottom. Slowly, two more incisions appeared on the two lumps and opened up, revealing a pair of eyes. Finally, the lower incision opened:

"You can't kill what isn't living."

Getting to his feet, Spekkio rubbed the dust from his body.

"Wh... what? How are..."

Looking up at the shocked Destiny he spoke again, slightly hesitant this time, "Nu's don't live, we just exist, thus we cannot die of wounds. We are invincible you might say, but certainly not immortal. We do cease to exist at a certain point of our... unlife which is why we also procreate." Slowly, his eyes travelled down her body to the appendage clutched tightly in one hand. His eyes widened and he spun around to see Gaspar's corpse, eyes wide open with his hands clutching at the gaping hole in his chest. Falling to his knees before his comrade's fallen body, Spekkio's body shuddered as silent tears streamed down his face, the eternity of friendship now at a final, downtrodden end. Slowly, he stopped and without turning, his voice floated out to Destiny. "Could you give me a few moments... you might not want to see this."

Without so much as a nod, Destiny left the building and attempted to light up another cigarette, failing because of her shaking hands. In a pique of temper she snatched the cigarette from her mouth and threw it to the ground, stamping viciously on it, twisting her heel to tear it to shreds. Frustration boiled inside her head, knowing she had just stood by as Gaspar was killed, knowing there was nothing she could do to protect anyone else from the dark queen's power.

A vortex appeared to her right but she ignored it, still stamping at the cigarette carcass on the ground. Emerging from it was S'grath, tears streaming down her face as well. Slowly, she walked up to Destiny and took her into her arms, holding her tight against her rotund body as Destiny finally cracked, an explosion of desperation, fear and anguish leaving her soul in shreds as nothing would ever be safe or sacred anymore.

After a few minutes, Spekkio emerged from the building, his face stained with tears. "It's time. S'grath, take Destiny and I'll meet you there."

With a slight dip of the head, S'grath turned to Destiny again. "Come girl, it's time to travel. Things are happening beyond our control and you must act soon. We cannot put it off much longer... the final battle is coming soon. Come hell or highwater, we must make our stand soon or never at all."

Stifling the tears, Destiny nodded dumbly and prepared herself to be swallowed whole again...

* * *

She plunged through the pure white vortex, racing to the opening she saw below her. With a thud she impacted into the hard cobblestones of the end of time. Forcing herself to get up instead of just curling up and crying, she took in her surroundings and then she saw it. The door to the Atria of Time of was wide open and there was no sign of Marle and Lucca. As two vortexes appeared, one either side of her, Destiny was already running through the doorway.

"Wait!" cried out S'grath. "You can't do it alone! You need the others help in this..."

Looking around, Spekkio saw the other secret door open and then the magazine lying on the floor in front of the door, quickly realising what had happened. "Destiny, we can't help them... we have to get the others and then launch our attack. S'grath, gather the others... there's something I need to show Destiny."

As she nodded and the vortex swallowed her, Spekkio reached inside of himself and pulled out the remote, hitting the call button on it, he promptly pocketed it. Moments later, the Epoch mk. 2 arrived at the pier.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see... this is an upgrade of the original Epoch, put together by Melchior and Belthasar for a very special purpose. Not only is it capable of flight to any period of time, but also capable of inter-stellar travel. This is what we're going to do, we're going into space so I can show you the truth of your Hand of Kronos."

Muted once again, Destiny followed Spekkio aboard the Epoch and into time again; the very air around them turning into fire as the red bird arced through the very matter of the universe into... space. The fiery air turned into a vacuum of nothingness. Spinning around in her seat, she saw the Hand of Kronos facility behind them.

"Won't their sensors pick us up?"

"No, multi-phasic shielding was built into the Epoch, designed specifically so that they wouldn't pick us up."

"Well... what is it I'm supposed to be seeing here?"

"Nothing, at the moment, we're not at the right angle."

Turning the ship around, Spekkio gently guided it around so it stared at the facility flat-on.

"Do you see it now?" he asked, gesturing at the facility.

Destiny stared at it intently, trying to work out what Spekkio wanted her to see. It had an outlandish shape; narrow at the bottom, widening out as it got higher with two wings stretching off either side before it dramatically thinned again for one smaller node at the top.

"Maybe if I backed it up a bit, you'd see it more clearly..."

As the Epoch slowly drifted away from the space station, she realised what she was looking at, the air catching in her throat she did. Before her was a giant Mammon Machine, an enlarged version of the generator that had thrived off of the immense power source that was Lavos back in 12,000BC and now it was in front of her, thriving off of something else instead...


	30. The Circle Of Life

**Chapter 29 - The Circle Of Life**

While Dr. Crantham had already received the results from the nanotech virus, the infection hadn't yet taken place. Admittedly the time-bubble was supposed to stop time completely inside the Hand of Kronos space station, time did indeed flow, albeit greatly slowed down. By creating the virus, it was already destined that it would be released and thus, Doctor Crantham had already received the results. Hence the meeting that was taking place at this very moment...

"I believe you have news for me Doctor Crantham?" he asked, clasping his hands together tightly atop the desk.

"Indeed I have sir. I believe I have discovered what happened to Prometheus. I've a small video clip here showing footage from the Command Centre in Tintagel Dome at the time Lavos rose through the planet's crust. With your permission, I'd like to show it to you."

Receiving only a nod in response, Dr. Crantham drew a small circular disc from his pocket and slid it into the console on Lazarus' desk. An image flickered on the screen before the tracking kicked in, settling it. On screen could be seen two men running into a room, talking to a man stood by the central console. Beside him stood a robot... Prometheus. As the two men ran away, both the one who seemed to be their leader and Prometheus stayed there. Chunks of the ceiling came crashing down until the picture suddenly turned to pure static.

Ejecting the disc, Crantham pocketed it. "It's seems fairly self-evident to me that Prometheus was destroyed in the collapse of Tintagel Dome. I assume he was there due to the change in the time-line. With that in mind, I don't believe we have anything to worry about from him so we can carry on with our plans."

"So it seems Doctor. You've done well. Dismissed..."

* * *

They had searched and failed. There had been no sign of Lavos except a small gate where there had been none before. Naturally, they took the gate and found themselves in the arctic wastes of the Earthbound Ones in 12,000BC and they found something else. A putrid, green carcass - its blood frozen on the floor. A simple cave became Ozzie's final resting place, from where he would never leave.

After further exploration of their new locale, they found the Skyways of Zeal, the mystical circles of power that served as the transport between the two castes, from the frozen hell to the glorious heaven that was the Kingdom of Zeal. And there they found her, the one fated to be merged with the primordial terror of the planet, the innocent young girl who feared for her mothers' sanity as Lavos slowly took control over her power-hungry mind. And there they ignored her, leaving her to her gruesome fate. And there the prophecy came, but not as it had the countless number of times before. This time it was different. This time it was final. This time would be the last. No more would a prophecy be given at this juncture in time. No more would there be any hope for the future. No more. Time had been changed forever

"You will all die soon." With that, the young Janus Zeal continued on his journey down the stairs, his faithful purple cat, Alfador, following him at his heels.

Futility enveloped the trio as they stood on the stairway for they knew the truth of the words that the young boy had been spoken. They could feel death's touch at the base of their spines, the icy cold shiver that was slowly growing throughout their bodies. It was to end with their deaths, they knew that but still hoped they could make a difference before they did...

They had charged up Marle's pendant with the Mammon Machine and were about to enter the Queen's chambers when a voice rang out loud and clear:

"STOP!"

They whirled round and saw her. There she stood in the light, dressed in black as always. Destiny. Standing further back was a rather pensive-looking Spekkio.

"Destiny, what are you doing here?" asked Crono as he strode up to her.

"They're gone."

"Who's gone?"

"Marle and Lucca. They're gone, disappeared and I think I know where. I think... no, I know they're in the Hand of Kronos and if they're there, I don't think they're in good hands."

"We've got to go after them! We can't leave them in the hands of the Black Wind! God knows what they'd do to them..."

"No, we can't go after them yet. You're not strong enough to do this... however, I might be able to get them out. As for you three, you're going in for some heavy-duty training with Spekkio."

Aghast, Frog strode up to the two. "What about Mistress Schala and the Ocean Palace? Surely we canst not let Queen Zeal's plans go ahead?"

"It's irrelevant at the moment. The time-line is already permanently warped. It's beyond all hope of restoring it to what it once was. Now we must fight to get the best future we can. The time is coming soon; we can't stall it much longer. We either stop it now or we just condemn the world."

"So we just give up on everything else?" questioned a now furious Frog.

"No, we just do that afterwards. We try up and pick up the fragments that are left after the battle. We do not have the time to do anything else. Either you come with me now or we all die, it's as simple as that." Turning on her heel, Destiny strode out of the Zeal Palace, Spekkio following her.

As Frog and Crono watched Destiny stalk off, Ayla slinked up to the pair. "Desnee strong. Me like Desnee. Me follow Desnee."

"Ayla's right Glenn. We don't have a choice in this; we either trust her or we die. My mind is already set; I'm going with her. We can't be the hero all of the time. Sometimes we have to pick our battles and run away so we can fight another day. Do you think Cyrus would have wanted you to die in there and the world is destroyed or you back away for now and come back when you're stronger and win! Do you think Cyrus would have let his pride get in the way of doing the right thing?"

Frog's shoulders slumped, he knew Crono was right. Saying nothing, he brushed past Ayla and Crono and made his way outside, the others following him...

* * *

Something was wrong and he knew it. Her demeanour towards him seemed wrong, she was... watching him carefully. _Why two of us for this? Why two for a one-person job?_ Warren Stark's mind was troubled as the two of them made their way to the Atria of Time. Standing close together in the light shining down on them, he braced himself as they started to float upwards. Something moving in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Whirling around, he saw Destiny set down in another pillar. Screaming out her name, Warren felt something sharp plunge deep into his back, lights flashing deep inside his head.

Destiny span around to see blood flow from Warren's open mouth as her roommate, Sascha Vicks, pulled a knife from his back. His hands stretched out to touch her as he floated up... and then they were gone. There was no sign anything had happened, Warren's blood having been sucked up through time as well as his corpse and his murderer. Her heart was torn, to go after Sascha and avenge her friends death or rescue Marle and Lucca... and she made her decision. Turning from the pillar, she strode to the hidden wall panel and flipped it open. Placing her hand against the scanner, she waited as she was identified and recognised, the door to her left sliding open. Walking through it, she quickly made her way to Warren's quarters. Opening the door, she saw his roommate, Gus, in there with one of the female agents.

"Get out," she said, her voice stone cold.

Snatching a blanket to cover himself, the man stood up. "What the hell do you think you're doing!"

As he reached out to her, she grabbed his hand, twisting his arm up behind his back.

"I said, get the fuck outta here NOW!"

Pushing him away from her, he stumbled into the wall, connecting with it hard, breaking his nose. The woman screamed as she saw the blood. The blanket disregarded, he span around and lunged at her. Palming off his fist, she quickly slammed her knee into his groin and then placed an elbow to his spine, knocking him to the floor.

"Last warning. Get the hell outta here Gus before you die."

Getting to his feet tenderly, he grabbed the blanket from the floor and stumbled out the door. "You're one crazy fucking bitch," he mumbled as he passed her.

Turning to the cowering woman, she just glared at her as she quickly ran out of the room. Destiny walked over to Warren's bed and lifted the mattress up. As she had suspected, there was some money there and some papers. She remembered stealing money from there when he'd been asleep after they'd... Lifting it up fully, she saw something at the far end of the bed. A video disc. Grabbing it, she fumbled the case open and slammed it into the player he had set up in the room. Sitting down on his bed, she watched his last recording.

The screen flickered and his face appeared as he sat down in front of the camera. "I made this recording for you Destiny in the event that something happens to me. I need to make this perfectly clear, I was a member of the Black Wind before you approached me on that day in the library, but as I saw that fear in your eyes, I realised something I hadn't seen before. I..." Warren trailed off, looking down at his hands as he picked at the skin around his fingernails. Looking back up at the camera, he continued, "I love you. It's as simple as that. I don't know why it took me that long to realise it. I know you don't feel the same for me and you never will. That's just not who you are. You're a free spirit, out to get what you want and you don't give a shit about anyone else..."

A laconic smile appeared on his face. "It sounds kinda odd me saying that when I'm completely, head-over-heels in love with you... Fucking hell, I gotta stop babbling on like this, there's more important things at stake. Firstly, the Black Wind have been cloning and breeding people. They've got access to technology that enables them to create people and they can alter memories. Now comes the bit you won't like... you're one of these people. You're a clone of sorts. Your DNA is that of one Queen Alyssa Zeal. Your memory of your early childhood in a special section of the base here was wiped. At the age of four, you were placed in Arris Dome in the year 2299AD. The other inhabitants of Arris Dome all had their memories changed, that you had always been there, that you were no-one new so their suspicions wouldn't be aroused. Then, in 2300AD, all of the inhabitants of Arris Dome were wiped out by the Black Wind except you. You were found by Crono and taken back to his time era and left with his family. When he disappeared in the incident that is going to happen soon, you were brought up as an only child. At the age of 14 you were taken by the Hand of Kronos and trained to be one of their Time Wardens before you were then sent on a mission to save the world.

"The important thing for you to realise here is that this has already happened. It's all been done before. I've recorded this message before. You've watched it before. Everyone has died before. We're trapped in a time-loop from which we can't escape... but there must be a way out of this! I refuse to believe we are doomed to die time and time again! You, and only you Destiny, can stop this from happening. Only you can break the cycle. Only you can save the entire planet... This entire place is one giant Mammon Machine, feeding off of another Lavos. The one in our planet was not the only one of it's kind. There are hundreds of them out there; they're an entire species. They found a dead one floating out in space and they copied its DNA, recreating its brain only. They're using the energy it gives off to power the time-bubble that surrounds this place but it's starting to reassert itself on the world. It's gaining more influence in its surroundings and it's only a matter of time before it breaks free. That in itself could be disastrous; another Lavos hell-bent on getting revenge on the people that imprisoned it for all these years.

"Now for the really scary bit, what's behind this whole thing. As far as I can tell, it's a being that calls itself Kronos, the God of Time. It's been weak and powerless for millennia until it found a person strong enough to host him. Whilst I don't know exactly who this person is, I know it's whoever is in charge of the Black Wind. I also know that Kronos hasn't been able to fully assert himself on this individual or we would already know about it. The Time Bubble in this station isn't absolute in blocking out time. It does pass in most of this facility, just a lot slower. However, in the inner sanctum, time is at an utter stop. I'm guessing this is due to the combination of the Time Bubble provided by the Lavos Brain and the power that Kronos is exerting upon that area. No time has passed there whatsoever. God knows how many times the people there have seen all of this happen before...

"I can only hope that this is indeed you watching this Destiny and not a Black Wind operative. Again, I can only hope that this helps you in someway. My heart is with you always Destiny and I pray that you can do what's needed. You can't allow this to happen again..." Kissing his finger, he pressed it against the camera lens. "I love you Destiny and I always will, whether I'm dead or alive... my spirit will be watching over you..." He reached out of shot and the screen turned to static. Destiny sat still on the bed, unmoving except for the single tear that slowly rolled down her face...


	31. Escape To Victory?

**Chapter 30 - Escape To Victory?**

They had been in the cells for days now, neither able to truly believe what their eyes had seen in that room. Neither of them wanted to admit to themselves that their friend could possibly have been behind all of this. Throughout the lonely days they'd spent in the cell, neither of them had spoken a word, silence wielding complete control over their cell. Marle laid stretched out on the bottom bunk, staring up at the bunk above which Lucca was dangling her legs from as she sat on it. The only sound to be heard was the snarling electrical field across the small entranceway to the cell and occasionally a few snatches of conversation from down the hall.

Finally, the silence was broken: "Look, we can't just stay in here forever, we've got to get out of here somehow."

"But how? We've tried everything already Marle. It's useless, we're stuck in here until they decide what to do with us. There's no point trying to fight it."

"There must be something we can do!" Marle cried furiously as she sat up, whacking her head on the bunk above her.

As Lucca sniggered and Marle rubbed her head, someone stood in the doorway, blocking the light off into the small room.

"Wh... who is it? What do you want from us?" stammered Lucca.

"Getting you two idiots outta here might be a start. What the hell were you thinking coming here! Don't you trust me?"

"Not particularly Destiny, I mean, why would we? You never gave us a reason to trust you!" exclaimed Marle

"Don't give me that shit, it's coz' you thought I'd take Crono from you and you know it. Well I got news for ya, I'm not interested, you can have him, a fat lot of good it'll do you."

"Stop bickering you two! Why don't we just get the hell outta here?"

Merely shrugging it off, Destiny disappeared from view for a few seconds. With a flash, the electrical field disappeared. "Come on, you better get outta there quickly, who knows when they'll check up on you again." As Marle and Lucca scrambled out of the room, Destiny handed them their weapons. Feeling something slick on it, Lucca examined her handgun closely.

"What is this?" she asked, lifting a finger to her eye. "Blood? What the hell happened?"

"I'll just say they weren't particularly forth-coming in giving me your weapons back. Let's leave it at that." With that, Destiny spun around and walked through a near-by door. As the other two followed, they saw the dismembered bodies of two guards lying on the floor, soaking in their own blood. Stepping over the corpses, Destiny continued in her relentless march, drawing a viciously curved red sword from the scabbard at her hips. Hefting it a bit in her hand, she kicked open the next door as alarms started going off all around them, red lights on the walls flashing. The three continued moving down various corridors, slowly making their way back to the Atria of Time, knowing it was only a matter of time until they met some opposition.

Skidding out of a junction came two Black Wind operatives, both levelling guns on the oncoming party. Like a flash, both were dead, one with a bullet to the head, the second with a crossbow bolt through the throat. As blood sprayed over her, Destiny carried on walking, spinning the sword around in her hand. She stopped when she realised Lucca and Marle weren't following her. Walking back to where they stood she looked them both in the face.

"Get over it, they would have killed you both just like that. If they try and stop us, they're our enemy, and as such, their lives are forfeit. Got that?" As they nodded dumbly at her, Destiny turned back around and continued walking. From the next adjoining corridor leapt a sword-wielding man. Virtually ignoring him, Destiny flicked her blade outwards, slashing across his throat. As she continued walking, he dropped his sword and fell to his knees, clutching at his throat, gurgling as the hot blood pumped through his grasping fingers.

Reaching the entrance to the Atria of Time, Destiny flipped open the panel and slapped her palm to the plate but the door wouldn't open. The screen flashed up with a message: "Access restricted to this person." With a scream of rage, she put her fist through the screen, sparks flying as she cut her hand open. Shaking her head, she reached into the holdall she carried in her left hand. Pulling out what looked like a stick of putty, she smeared it across the doorframe. Jamming a timer into it, she set it to five seconds and armed it. Grabbing the holdall from the floor, she sprinted past Marle and Lucca, screaming at them to follow her. As they did, the putty ignited into a large flame, a huge, roaring, fireball chasing them down the corridor, light bulbs bursting in the extreme heat as the door flew in the opposite direction. Marle felt the hair in her ponytail singe as she ran away, quickly diving into an open doorway. When the fireball died out, the three gathered back in the corridor.

"Well, that was easy," said Marle brightly.

"Too damn easy, something's wrong here." Destiny shook her head, raising the sword in front of her. Slowly, she inched through the door but there was no-one in sight. "Come on, let's get outta here quickly. As the three of them stood in the pillar of black light, Destiny looked up. Slowly, it winked out. Looking around them, they saw all of the pillars of light disappearing until they had all gone, plunging the room into darkness. A faint glow came from the doorway and the trio stared at it as it slowly came towards them. Flickering, lights came on showing him standing before them.

"Crono?" asked Destiny as she stepped towards him. Reaching out, Lucca grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her back to them.

"That's not the Crono we know..."

Looking at Lucca with bewilderment, Destiny turned to face him again. Slowly she realised he was very different; he exuded evilness from every pore in his body.

"It's a pleasure to meet you ladies again, and you as well Destiny. My, how you've grown since I last saw you."

Silence blossomed over the room. No-one moved and not a single sound was made. Swiftly, Marle aimed and fired her crossbow, the bolt flying towards him. Even quicker, he snatched it out of the air, his fist clenched tightly around the shaft.

"Do you know how many times I've caught that crossbow bolt? Do you know how many times I've been through this exact same moment? I sure as hell don't... I lost count after the first few hundred. Hell, I've even said these exact same words thousands of times!"

"What the hell are you going on about?" Lucca whispered hoarsely, her hands shaking in fear.

"It's all happening again Lucca," said Destiny, no emotion in her voice. Lucca and Marle looked at her in surprise. "We've done this all before. We're trapped inside a time-loop. Every single thing we've done, we've done possibly millions of times before and he's seen it all."

"I'd listen to her if I were you, she's a smart girl. It's a shame she's not going to live much longer." As he said that, he raised his right arm and a sword appeared from nowhere, dropping into it. Lunging forward, he drove the blade straight at Destiny. Snapping her blade up, she knocked his to the side, quickly swinging hers back in an effort to disembowel him. Leaping back, the blade's tip caught his shirt, tearing it open. Stepping forward, she swung the blade overhand, his sword quickly meeting hers, sparks flashing as the sound of metal upon metal rang out through the room. Lucca and Marle stood there speechless and unmoving as the swordfight played out in front of them. They didn't see the two men slip up behind them until two late. Knocked unconscious they were dragged off, not that Destiny noticed, she was fighting for her life. As their blades locked together again, Destiny swung her fist but Lazarus caught it in his, twisting it viciously, breaking her arm with an audible crack. Keeping hold of it, he smashed his forehead into her nose, a spray of blood hitting him in the face as her nose broke. Staggering back, she half-fell to the floor. Looking him in the face, she screamed and lunged at him. Her eyes flew open as she felt the cold steel penetrate her chest. She looked up at his leering face in horror, knowing that she had lost. Casually, he pushed her off of his blade, sending her tumbling to the floor. As the blood flowed freely from her wound, he stood over her, sword raised high above his head. The light flashed off the blade as it arced down to finish her off, plunging into her stomach, a fresh gout of blood pouring from her.

"That's still as fun as the last hundred times I did that," he said, stooping to pick up his cigarette where it fell. Taking one last pull on it, he threw it into a puddle of her blood and walked away. It hissed as it extinguished, all life gone from it...


	32. Saturation Of Morals

**Chapter 31 - Saturation Of Morals**

Its time was coming. It could feel the power flowing through it and it was only a matter of time until it could be released. Soon, it wouldn't even need it's supplicant to perform special tasks for it, it'd be able to do it itself. Only one more thing was needed for its freedom...

* * *

Blood covered the floor, highlighted by the multitude of different-coloured lights coming from invisible sources. They came to take it away, two figures dressed in black carrying a stretcher between them, a clean blanket folded neatly atop it. Setting the stretcher beside the corpse, one of the men took her legs, the other taking her arms and they heaved her bodily onto the stretcher, fresh gouts of blood pouring from the wounds. Grabbing the blanket, one of the men was about to cover her with it when he stopped.

"What the fuck? I swear her eyes were closed a moment ago..."

Quickly looking into the glassy eyes, the other one shook his head. "Probably rolled open when we moved her. It happens, nothin' to worry about."

Shrugging, he draped the blanket over her, it quickly becoming saturated with blood. Softly at first, a scratching noise reached their ears, quickly increasing in volume. Spinning around, they both saw a red sword spinning around on the spot, the hilt rubbing against the steel floor, marking it eternally. Slowly, it lifted from the ground still pirouetting, the pace picking up as its circles became wilder and wilder, the point wobbling up and down. Backing away from the stretcher, the two men shared nervous looks as the sword stopped, dropping down to the floor with a clatter. Nervously, they inched back to the stretcher. In a non-existent breeze, the edge of the blanket lifted from the corpse's face, revealing a small smile on her lips, her eyes closed.

"What the hell is going on here? Her eyes were definitely open!"

Jaw-achingly slow, she sat up on the stretcher, the smile gone from her face. She held one arm palm-first to the man standing by her feet. Dropping to his knees screaming, he clutched at his temples, the pain in his head not subsiding as he felt his brain vibrating, smashing it repeatedly against his skull. Blood started running from his ears and his nose as his screaming became ever-more loud and painful. Her eyes shot open as his head exploded, a fine mist of blood spattering her, the floor and the walls, a few skull and brain fragments mixed in as well. The other man back-pedalled until he hit the wall, pressing himself up against it in a feeble attempt to merge into the background. Creaking, Destiny's head turned round to face him, the rest of her body staying completely still. The last thing he saw was the emptiness of her pitch black eyes...

* * *

Training wasn't going at all well for Crono, Frog and Ayla. Spekkio was pushing them far harder than they could take. They were near exhaustion whilst Spekkio, the self-proclaimed God of War, was still going like he'd just started.

"One more time you guys, then you can take a rest alright?"

Wearily, they dragged themselves into their fighting stances, but just as Crono went in to attack, Spekkio signalled him to back off. Walking past the fatigued threesome, Spekkio walked into the main room to be confronted by a gruesome sight.

"Holy shit! What happened to you?"

Hearing voices, Crono, Frog and Ayla came out as well, shock registering on their faces when they saw Destiny stood before Spekkio, leaning against the lamppost, a trail of blood leading up to where she was.

Desperately, she tried to speak, but her voice failed her. Finally, a sound came forth: "Eepoc. Nowwww."

"What's going on Destiny?" asked Crono as he stepped towards her. Without looking at him, Destiny raised a hand, sending Crono flying into the wall, the impact driving the air from his lungs.

"Eepoc. Nowwww."

Spekkio's eyes opened wide as he realised what was going on. Stepping away he started casting the Luminaire spell but to no avail. Destiny lunged forward, ramming her fist through his chest. He could feel her groping around inside him, searching for the remote. Ayla jumped at her, but Destiny swung her free hand round, catching her in midair, sending her flying into the lamppost. Frog swung down the Masamune with as much force as he could muster, aiming for the arm deep inside of Spekkio but he froze in mid-swing, his muscles all tensing as he struggled to move. Finally, Destiny's hand emerged wrapped around the remote as Spekkio toppled over backwards to the floor. Hitting the summon button, she crushed it in her hands, particles as fine as dust pouring through her fingers. As the Epoch arrived, she dragged herself aboard it, sealing it shut and launched it through the space-time continuum...

* * *

It was coming and he knew it, all of his plans were coming to fruition. He could feel its presence drawing ever nearer. Lighting up a cigarette, Lazarus took a pull as he put his feet up his desk, leaning back in his chair as he laughed softly to himself...

* * *

She had arrived where she wanted to be and her target dead in her sights. She knew instinctively that the ship was made of the one material she needed it to be. Dreamstone. Setting the Epoch mk.2 to full speed and aimed it for the top of the Hand of Kronos space station. Travelling close to light speed, it flew straight and true, like an arrow from a bow...

* * *

Satisfied the job would be done, it removed itself from the young woman's mind. Destiny, the young man had called her. If it had had a mouth, it would have laughed at the irony...

* * *

Destiny's arms slumped from the controls, her head lolling to the side as the alien life left her body. Her life had left her body on the cold floor inside the Atria of Time, but that was neither here nor there. The fact was she was dead and that was that, but it wouldn't stop her. The Epoch flew inwards, the sensors only picking it up in the last few seconds, too late to do anything about it. Onwards it flew, shards of metal flying off into space as it carved into the Mammon Machine. Giant balls of red and yellow flame rolled outwards as oxygen sprayed out through the massive tears in the space station's shell. The ship itself continued through the building, smashing its way through several decks as flames engulfed it, burning Destiny's body to a crisp.

The Dreamstone that the ship was made of reacted forcefully with the Mammon Machine, setting up an energy overload. Power coursed through it into the Lavos brain, giving it the energy it needed. A vortex appeared around it as it disappeared from the station. Power coursed through it into Lazarus, giving him the extra energy he needed. A fiery inferno erupted around him, as he arched his back, giving into the power flowing through him. Suddenly, he imploded in a flash and was gone...


	33. Endgame

**Chapter 32 - Endgame**

It was time for the summoning. He was just one step away from becoming that which he desired so he could rectify his mistakes and clean the world of this pestilence, this disease... and so he called them, urging them to come to him in the only way he knew how...

* * *

Slowly, the wound closed up, the flesh becoming whole once more but nothing could mend his world with what he now knew. His eyes opened and he saw three familiar faces above him.

"Are you alright man? That looked pretty nasty," asked Crono, extending his hand. Grasping it, Spekkio felt himself lifted to his feet by the spiky-haired youth.

"It's time. We can't stall this any longer, we have to move now. The question is wh--" Spekkio stopped speaking as he felt his insides start to tingle. As the feeling spread through his body, so did the intensity. Suddenly, the tingling stopped, to be replaced by the cold embrace of nothingness as a vortex opened up around him. Reacting quickly, Crono dived into the vortex, quickly followed by Frog and Ayla, just before it closed up, devouring them completely...

* * *

They stood in the opening, all but one of them in that one place. They had gathered as commanded to by the outsider, V'nark, for they knew it was time. They could not stand by and watch their planet, the planet betrothed to them by the Gods. They knew that in this matter, they had to trust in V'nark, despite their hatred of him because of his crimes, for they all knew what he was. The son of God.

At the same time the vortex appeared around Spekkio, several vortexes appeared where they had gathered, each one centred around an individual Nu. None of them spoke or cried out as they were swallowed up whole for a wave of realisation hit them all, simultaneously. They now knew who they really were...

* * *

He chuckled to himself as he saw the vortexes appear before him, pouring forth his creations. Only one now remained, the one that would bring his one true son back to him, V'nark to the Nu's and Spekkio to the accursed Lavos-spawn. How ironic it was that the creation he so abhorred had given forth the form he now inhabited, albeit temporarily. Soon he would be whole again and able to return to what he once was. It had been a mistake to give forth his power to those he had created for he had not realised that they in turn would create, but not perfection as he had. No, they had created imperfections, a disaster upon his pure world, but that he could tolerate, mistakes happen. What he could not tolerate was their other notable creation, time. They had not reasoned what would happen if they created it, and had thus signed their own death warrant. The only way a Nu, one of his sacred creations, could die was of old age and it irked him immensely. What angered him the most though were the actions of the interloper, Lavos. Only he, Kronos, had the right to give existence but the invader was defying him brazenly, but that would soon end...

He sighed with relief as the final vortex opened up before him, taking longer to arrive than the others since the distance was further to travel. But what came out was not what he had expected. No matter, for the three uninvited guests could stand no chance against him. A stifled cry came from behind him as some of the guests he had invited recognised them.

"Crono!" screamed Marle, struggling against the arms that held her bound. Not that Crono was listening, he was too busy staring at the figure before him.

"At last we meet boy... it's been a long time. I'd almost forgotten what you looked like."

"A... are you... me?"

"Not anymore... once I was but now I'm something completely different. I'm not even human anymore... I am Lazarus, the mortal body of Kronos and soon I shall be no more. There will be no use for me and I will simply die, I will be gone forever and I am happy to do so in the service of my God. Now come to me my children."

Streaming past the confused trio came a hoard of blue Nu's, surging towards the host of their God. All except one. "Come to me my son. You are the chosen one... come to me."

Slowly, Spekkio stumbled forwards, to be stopped by Crono's arm grabbing hold of his. Turning to face him, Spekkio's eyes blazed. "Release me mortal, you have no right to bind me like this."

"What's wrong with you Spekkio? What's going on?"

"My father has called me back to his side. I must join him so please let me go."

"NO! I won't let you do this!"

Shrugging, Spekkio grabbed him and flung away before turning and walking up to Lazarus. "I have returned to you father."

"It is time for the ceremony to begin son. You know what to do."

With a nod, Spekkio's shoulders slumped as he slowly collapsed in on himself. Crono got to his feet as he saw Spekkio turn into a puddle. It glided across the floor of the ethereal world to where the Nu's stood with their eyes closed. As the puddle glided over the form of the first Nu, all of their eyes snapped open but none of them moved to help the first Nu as it was slowly devoured. As it dissolved into a puddle like Spekkio had, it joined with the first one, making it larger. Slowly it spread through all of the Nu's, dissolving them all, one by one until there was only the puddle of quicksilver.

Changing course, it drifted over to Lazarus, gathering around his feet. The others stood horrified as it flowed around him, slowly crawling up his body to his face. Streams of the quicksilver poured into his nostrils, his mouth and his ears, drowning him in itself. Finally it had all entered him, his body full with the life essence of all the Nu's, the power he had entrusted them seeping into him, bleeding the power into his very being. Lazarus dropped into a crouch, breathing heavily as he felt it flow through him, his blood rushing through his head, lights flashing before his eyes. Looking up at Crono, he smiled before exploding in a flash of white light, Lazarus' body parts flying away on the crest of the shockwave.

As the bright light receded and everyone could see again, the ethereal reality reasserted itself around the new figure, glowing in darkness. Shimmering, it floated from its supine position on the floor to a metre above the ground, still wrapped tightly around itself. Slowly it unfurled, glimmering as its transparent body parts stretched out. It was a black Nu, a dumpy figure floating in the air. Unhurriedly it turned, taking in the fear of those that were around it. And then it changed... to Marle it looked like Crono, to Lucca it looked like Frog, to Ayla it looked like Kino, to Frog it looked like Lucca, to Crono it looked like Marle... a reflection of that which their hearts truly belonged to, those they could never want to harm out of hate.

"Do you seek to stop me?" it whispered in its reflective voices. "I am not without a sense of fair play. If you defeat me in battle, you may take back your feeble little existence. How does that sound?"

In response to its supposedly magnanimous gesture, another vortex opened up, a much larger one than the others before it. Gracefully, out slid the ethereal form of the long dead Lavos, freshly reanimated by the incarcerated Lavos brain. Atop it sat Alyssa Zeal, cackling maniacally.

"Where the hell is that bitch daughter of mine? I want my fucking leg back!" she screamed hysterically, an evil grin still playing on her face.

"In all that excitement, I nearly forgot about you. It's about time you showed up," Kronos said. Closing its eyes, it summoned another vortex above it and from it dropped Queen Zeal's leg, falling into its hand. "Is this what you want? Come and get it."

Hopping down from her perch, Alyssa stumbled over to it with the aid of a poorly constructed crutch.

"Give it back now or face the wrath of Lavos," she threatened, giving a toothy grin before cackling again.

"No," was all it said as it plunged its fingers into her eyeballs, rapidly ripping her head from her shoulders, her body slowly toppling over to the side. Turning, it threw the head to Crono, who caught it by instinct, quickly dropping it on the floor in horror.

The disembodied heads eyelids opened revealing two new eyeballs and it winked slyly at the shocked Crono. Picking itself up from the floor, Alyssa's body gathered the crutch it had been using and hobbled over to the head, quickly picking it up and placing it back to its rightful place, the wound quickly healing.

Cricking her head to both sides, she spoke again: "Oww, that hurt! I'd really rather you hadn't done that." Clumsily, she turned herself around. "Now, last chance. Give me my foot back or pay the consequences."

"You really believe that one of those puny Lavos' can defeat me, a God?"

"You're no God, you're just a creature that got lucky. You're just another being who has different powers to the rest of us. You're not special, you're just different..."

"You'd liken me to the rest of you puny mortals?"

"I think you'll find none of us are as puny as you think..."

"You wish me to prove my strength? Done." Turning around, Kronos flew towards the gigantic hulk of the Lavos, gliding swiftly through the air, bursting straight through its shell. Light came pouring through the gaping hole, as it all started to vibrate, steam rising from the outer shell as it slowly evaporated, leaving only Kronos standing there in a small steaming puddle of green blood.

"La... Lavos?" stuttered a shocked Queen Zeal.

"You doubted my power? You should have known better Alyssa... the whole purpose of the Black Wind was for my own gain, not Lavos'. You've been working for me the whole time."

Screaming, Alyssa took off from the floor, levitating in a similar fashion to Kronos. As she flew at it, wailing like a banshee, Kronos merely sidestepped her, grabbing her one remaining ankle as she went past. Giving it a quick jerk, Kronos brought her flat down on her face, lights exploding before her eyes as a burst of blood came from her nose. Still holding onto her ankle, Kronos quickly flipped her overhead, slamming her back down to the ground on the other side, the back of Alyssa's head smashing into the floor.

"I tire of this already..." Lifting Alyssa from the floor, Kronos placed its hand between her breasts, the hand slowly sinking in through the flesh. Ripping it back out, Kronos held her still beating heart in its hand as Alyssa's eyes fixed on it. Squeezing it tightly, it burst like a melon in its hands, Alyssa simultaneously going limp and falling to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.

"And now, it's your turn," Kronos said as it turned to face Crono, Frog and Ayla.

"It's now or never guys," Crono murmured to the others.

"My promise still stands. You defeat me, your... existence will go on as will your species. You lose, and I take it all and it will return to what it was originally intended for."

"Deal."

"Let it be," said Kronos.

No-one moved, all of them watching each other warily, waiting for the first move. Ever the impatient one, Ayla burst forward, her feral instincts taking over as she launched herself towards Kronos. Spinning away from her, Kronos lashed out with a heel in one fluid motion, catching her in the side as she flew past, knocking the wind from her lungs.

Frog and Crono slowly edged around it, both with their swords held out in front, the points aimed squarely at Kronos. With a quick step forward, Crono swung low, aiming for the legs as Frog on the other side went high, his blade arcing towards Kronos' head. Two blades appeared in its hands, the first spinning round to block Frog's blade, the second glancing away Crono's sword. Back-flipping away, Kronos took up a fighting stance, its right hand holding the sword in front of him, the left holding the sword reversed as if it was a knife. Kronos staggered forwards as Ayla jump-kicked it from behind, quickly recovering from her earlier blow. Spinning around, blades flashing quickly, the sound at a nearly deafening level as they clashed against each other. Kronos calmly stood there blocking and parrying every single sword thrust that came near it.

"Is this the best you can do? You humans are pathetic... how can you hope to defeat me?" it sneered. "Time to step it up a bit."

Launching into attack, Kronos' twin blades sung out in unison, scoring nicks and scratches all over his opponent's bodies as they tried to keep the swords at bay. As Ayla jumped in, pummelling Kronos with her bunched up fists, Crono and Frog slipped back a bit, a silent nod between the two of them... time to step it up indeed.

As Kronos staggered backwards again, Crono interrupted his quiet chanting to cry out, "Ayla, get down!" as Frog charged towards the retreating form. Dropping into a crouch, Ayla felt Frog's feet on her back as he launched into the air, sailing over Kronos, thrusting the Masamune downwards. Summoning a lightning bolt, Crono threw it straight and true, aiming for the mighty mythical blade. In an explosive burst it hit it, lightning coursing down it towards Kronos as the blade plunged upwards. The swords disappearing, Kronos threw its hands up, slapping his palms either side of the Masamune, snatching it out of the air as Crono threw his sword blade first at Kronos. Instead of its body being racked with pain as the lightning coursed through its veins, it merely stood there, holding the blade above its head as Crono's sword, the Swallow, plunged through it's stomach, erupting from the other side in a spray of vitriolic blood. Leaping up from her crouch, Ayla flew at the sword, lashing her foot out and hammering it further in, pushing the sword up to its hilt inside of Kronos as Frog landed on his feet behind the supposed God. Slowly, it lowered its hands, the Masamune still clutched tightly between its palms as it looked downwards, cocking its head to the side as it tried to work out what that sword was doing there. Suddenly, Kronos looked up, staring Crono in the eyes. Flipping the Masamune into its left hand, it clutched the hilt, slowly drawing the Swallow out of its gut with its free hand. Dropping to one knee, it looked down again as a puddle of black ichor spread around its feet.

Rising back to its feet, Kronos advanced on the now defenceless Crono. It merely shrugged off the bolts of lightning Crono was throwing at it as it started spinning the blades around in its hands. A burst of water hit Kronos from behind but it ignored it. When Ayla leapt upon its back, raining blow after blow upon its head, Kronos just continued walking, its pace slowing as Kronos lost more and more of its blood, its strength flowing from its wounds.

Finally losing patience with the prehistoric woman beating on its head, a third arm grew from its body. Reaching up to grab her by the hair, it held her at full stretch in front of itself. Kronos laid the two blades at her neck, and with a scissor motion, severed Ayla's head from her shoulders. As her body fell to the floor, blood fountaining from the neck, it threw the shocked looking head over its shoulder, not looking to see where it landed. As the third arm returned to its body, Kronos sensed another attack from behind, spinning round and catching the ball of water Frog had thrown at it. It started to bubble and evaporate as a ball of pure energy formed in its hand, glowing, pulsating as it grew and grew. With a leer on its face, Kronos threw the ball of energy at Frog, hitting him square in the chest. Frog stood there and just took it, seemingly unaffected by it at all. Just as he was about to cast another ball of water, he knew something was wrong. The magic he was drawing upon overran his body, overloading him. As he opened his mouth to scream in agony, a bright white light poured forth, blinding everyone. When the light receded, all that was left was a pile of ashes on the ground. Turning back to its final target, Kronos advanced determinedly, the swords being spun around again. Stumbling over Alyssa's corpse, Crono fell backwards to the floor. Sensing victory, Kronos approached even faster, the sword tips whistling through the air as they grew closer and closer to the frightened form on the floor. It never noticed Crono's chanting until too late. Using the last of his energy, Crono cast his ultimate spell knowing it was beyond his control and would kill him as well. Luminaire. A high-pitched whine was heard as a circular wall of yellow light rose from the ground, encasing both Crono, Kronos and Alyssa's corpse.

As the dome closed, Marle finally moved into action, shrugging off the man who had been watching in awe as the fight had taken place. Stamping on his foot, she rammed her elbow deep into his gut, swinging her hand upwards catching him with a mighty backhand across the jaw. As he staggered back, she ran towards the dome of light, towards where she knew Crono was. As it slowly collapsed in on itself, a shockwave of sound and force burst out, catching Marle on the crest. Lifted from her feet and flung backwards, the last thing she thought was that it was like flying...


	34. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Kronos had been defeated, the Lavos brain destroyed and the world was saved... right? Everyone knows once the bad guy is defeated the world goes on to live happily ever after, that life becomes idyllic and all problems just drift away like clouds in a breeze...

* * *

As she came to, she saw Lucca above her, leaning against a stone pillar. She realised her head was resting in Lucca's lap, one hand absent-mindedly stroking her hair as she looked off into the distance. Looking around, she realised she was no longer in the ethereal reality but in the centre of the Millennial Fair, lying underneath Leene's Bell.

"Wh... where is he?" she whispered. As Lucca turned to look down on her, Marle saw the tears streaking her face.

"No... NO! He can't be dead!"

Rising to her feet, she saw a small gathering a few metres in front of her. Without looking at what was in the middle of them, she already knew. As she ran to them, those few metres stretched out to miles and miles. The only thing she could hear was her heart beating faster and faster and her slow breaths going in and out of her lungs. She could feel her temples throbbing as if someone was beating her around the head with a sledgehammer. Finally she reached them. Dreading what she would see but almost wanting it as well, an end to it all, she shouldered her way through the throng of people. She could smell the sweat of some burly men, the sweet, almost acrid and overpowering smell of perfume on some of the young girls. She could hear the hushed whisperings as they discussed what could have happened. They were all around her, pressing in on her, squeezing her tight, each and every one of them screaming the same thing at her: "_HE'S DEAD, LEAVE HIM BE,_" over and over again

And then it all stopped. She saw him, lying in a contorted heap. Falling to her knees beside his corpse, everyone else faded away into nothingness, all was removed from her mind except him.

"Stop it! Stop playing around you idiot!" she cried, wanting to disbelieve it so much it hurt. Grabbing his arm, she tried to pull him to his feet but to no avail. Dropping him back down, she crouched over him. "Get up. Come on, stop pretending and get up you selfish bastard. You can't leave me like this, not after all we've been through..."

A hand rested on her shoulder and she turned to look up into Lucca's face. Her lips were moving but Marle couldn't make any sense of it, all she heard was an incomprehensible babble. Finally, one word got through to her.

"Dead."

It all snapped into place for her, she realised that what lay before her was not Crono anymore, it was merely a lifeless husk but that wouldn't stop her...

"NOOOOO! DON'T LEAVE ME! DON'T DIE ON ME LIKE THIS! DEAR GOD, DON'T TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME, NOT LIKE THIS!"

* * *

In the year 1003AD, the nation of Porre started a war with the kingdom of Guardia, seeking to seize power for itself. Without a strong leader in the battlefield like Crono, the war was quickly lost by Guardia. One week after Guardia Castle had been taken, the King and the Princess Nadia were both executed, a swift axe-blow each severing their heads. But none of this was of any consequence...

In the year 1999AD, the alien entity known as Lavos rose from its nesting place near the planets molten core to the surface, spraying fine needles of pure, focused energy into the air, causing it to rain destruction down on the inhabitants of the world. Slowly, the life was drained from the planet, the once mighty ranks of humans shrinking down to a mere pittance until they were finally extinct. The only life that was on the planet was the latest generation of Lavos', preparing themselves before they in turn sought out new planets to inhabit...

The new Lavos' found the universe a lot easier to conquer than their predecessor; worlds fell to them without much struggle, lives were lost in their feeble attempts to keep their planets for themselves against the alien invaders but it was all futile...

The story of the world that Crono and co. had inhabited was passed on down from generation to generation, turning from a factual story to a historical tale, from a historical tale to a legend and from a legend to a myth until it was eventually forgotten, the story as dead as the humans that had tried to oppose their destiny...


	35. Afterword

**Afterword**

Well, four years later, I finally get around to uploading a somewhat fixed version of this. I look back upon this story, and whilst I can quite happily admit it's poorly written, I still quite enjoy it, and I remember just how much fun I had writing this late at night, cackling away to myself as I planned evil fates for the characters. Gotta say, I kinda miss that.

Anyway, the story. What a mess. It mostly ignores Chrono Cross (I don't think I was even aware of the games existence when I wrote this), and the first few odd-numbered chapters were basically me writing prose versions of the actual gameplay, with more cussing. But as it progressed, I got pretty happy with the twists I threw in, though it was getting sloppy in places, such as Destiny god-moding against Ozzie, or rushing towards the end with the scene in the Kingdom of Zeal.

I guess if you're reading this little afterword, you're probably wondering why the hell I'm writing it. Mostly, it's just to say "Hi," I guess. I do have a quasi-sequel to this planned, but it's been sitting on the shelf for an awful long time. I may dig it out eventually, but it'll be relatively short compared to this.

And I think that's all. Thank you to everyone who's read this, and maybe I'll see you in the future with something new! It's about time...


End file.
